Billionaire public servant Omar Shariff
The wealth and assets accumulated by public servant, Omar Shariff, continues to stun investigators. In addition to his multibillion-dollar bank accounts, the Permanent Secretary has been able to buy properties all across Guyana.
He has properties in Essequibo, Eccles, Kitty, Campbellville, Lethem and Kuru Kuru. Interestingly, Shariff has been able to secure many of his properties during a short period of time. These are only the ones that have been discovered and revealed by the ongoing investigation.
In November 2007, Shariff secured two properties in close proximity to each other at Kuru Kuru, Soesdyke/ Linden Highway.
Two years later, in March 2009, Shariff acquired another plot of land. This one is at Lethem, Left Bank of Tabatinga Creek, Right Bank of Takutu River.
Another two years after that, in 2011, Shariff stretched his hands all the way to Essequibo. He bought a property at Lot 16 Acme Scheme, Vergenoegen Co-op Society, East Bank Essequibo.
The very next year, the Permanent Secretary was able to acquire more properties. This time he moved to Georgetown. In February and September 2012, Shariff bought two properties at Eccles, East Bank Demerara.
One year later, in 2013, the billionaire was able to secure a property in another high end area. He bought a property at Dadanawa Sheriff Street Section “K” Campbellville.
Shariff got his hands on more assets in 2014. In that year he secured another property at lot 36 Section B Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo. He also bought a property at 36 Dowding Street, Kitty.
Of the nine properties that Shariff has been able to put his hands on over the seven-year period, six are in the name of his reputed wife, Sabeita Hardeo.
Kaieteur News previously reported that the public servant had billions of dollars in a number of accounts at local banks, there is also information that he has invested some of his money in shares at a few thriving establishments.
In 2010, Shariff and his reputed wife, Sabeita Hardeo, acquired thousands of shares in three major companies across Guyana. These companies are Banks DIH, Republic Bank, and Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI).
Kaieteur News has found out that Shariff has 14 accounts. Some contained millions of dollars while others had billions. The Permanent Secretary has accounts at five banks. He had over $1B in his Citizens Bank account. He has nine accounts at GBTI. The combined amount in those accounts was just over $14.9B.
Shariff has only one Republic Bank account. He had deposited over $953.6M there.
He has two Scotia Bank accounts. However, Kaieteur News was only able to get its hands on information of what was contained in one of these accounts.
Shariff had deposited over $454.9M in one of his Scotia Bank accounts. He also has a New Building Society (NBS) account. He deposited only $2.1M there.
In total, Shariff deposited over $18 Billion in local currency, equivalent to US$90 Million, in his 14 accounts. His overall withdrawal amounts to over $16.2B. It is believed that the monies were deposited over a five-year period.
Shariff has six motor vehicles in his name including a tractor and a trailer. All properties and vehicles were acquired before 2015.
Shariff is a former Chairperson of the Steering Committee of the Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO), an arm of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), the current Opposition, and was a candidate for that party in last year’s General Elections.
Shariff was sent off on leave earlier in July, by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, in order to facilitate a probe by both the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) and the State Assets Recovery Unit.
A letter Harmon sent to him indicated that the Minister knew sometime before that Shariff was under investigation. In addition to being questioned, Shariff also had his home searched by Law Enforcement officers.
Investigators are probing how Shariff ended up with billions in his accounts.
From all indications, investigators are not buying what Shariff told them – that he owned a business that was raking in almost $100M annually for the last seven years.
There seems to be little evidence that taxes were paid.
In addition, there were questions about his role after a major investigation revealed that the Office of the President, under Shariff’s watch, transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to the Ministry of Public Service, headed by then Minister, Dr. Jennifer Westford.
Westford, a sitting PPP Member of Parliament and her assistant Margaret Cummings, are currently before the courts facing 24 simple larceny charges.
The charges allege that between August 2011 and April 2015, while being employed in the Public Service, they stole the sum of $639.4M belonging to the state.
