Magistrate recuses self from $120M fraud case
July 17, 2015 | By KNews | Filed Under Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News, Source
A magistrate has recused himself from hearing a case against a Bartica man accused of misappropriating $120M from a prominent city business.
Magistrate Dylon Bess made the announcement last Friday when the case came before him at the Bartica Magistrate’s Court.
Facing five charges of fraud is Eon Ferrier, a businessman of Bartica.
Ferrier had appeared in the Georgetown Courts before City Magistrate Ann McLennan on July 1, where he was denied bail for swindling Nazar Mohamed, proprietor of Mohamed’s Enterprise on Lombard Street, of $120M.
According to details of the charge, Ferrier, between June 22 and June 23 at Bartica, was entrusted with the money to purchase gold for Mohamed’s Enterprise, a company involved in gold trading. Instead, Ferrier is alleged to have converted the money to his own use and benefit.
The matter had been transferred to the Bartica Magistrate’s Court.
Attorney-at-law Latchmie Rahamat, prosecuting the matter by means of fiat from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), had told the city court that the accused had been accused of doing something similar to another businessman. She had called for bail to be denied, arguing that Ferrier is a flight risk.
However, Ferrier’s attorney, Patrice Henry had requested that his client be granted bail. He insisted that his client posed no flight risk and the prosecution has no evidence to prove that the money was given to his client.
On July 10 when the matter was called at Bartica, Magistrate Bess announced that he was sending the matter back to the Chief Magistrate and he would no longer be handling the matter.
The matter was reassigned to Essequibo magistrate, Sunil Scarce, who will preside over the case at the Bartica court.
Ferrier had been on remand in the Camp Street jail but had gone up for the case in Bartica, an area where he resides. He was admitted to the hospital in Bartica where doctors determined he was suffering from infections and mouth ulcers.
