May 21 ,2021
The Board of Directors of the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) today said that a fraud was perpetrated at a commercial bank and resulted in the debit of GWI’s bank account of nearly $30m.
A GWI release today did not name the bank.
The release said that the fraud was discovered by the Finance Department upon reconciling accounts for March 2021. The amounts are $17,489,417 debited on March 16, 2021 and $12,327,515 debited on March 24, 2021.
Upon querying, the bank informed GWI that the amounts represent payments made via wire transfer instructions, payable to two persons (names given) resident in the USA. The addresses of the recipients are 1405 Brooklyn Avenue AF2F Brooklyn Avenue, New York 11210 and 1998 Pacific Street, Brooklyn NY 11216.
It has been established that both signatures on the wire transfer instruction letters were forged, GWI said.
GWI said it has never conducted business with these persons or at no time initiated or instructed the bank to carry out these fictitious transactions.
The Guyana Police Force was promptly called in and is currently conducting investigations. The police fingerprint experts have confirmed that the signatures were forgeries. The Bank of Guyana has also been notified of this fraud.