Jagdeo urges victims of Ponzi fraudster Yuri to come forward

Yuri Garcia-Dominguez, a Cuban national, is no stranger to Guyanese law enforcement, having faced multiple fraud charges. Despite this, he continues to engage in deceptive practices, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo said on Thursday, urging victims to come forward and report their cases to the authorities.

Speaking at his party’s Freedom House headquarters in Georgetown, Jagdeo said he received a call last week that Yuri was back at his ponzi scheme.

The Vice President said a member of parliament reportedly told him that they had invested in Yuri’s scheme last year.

According to Jagdeo, Yuri was in Unity, Mahaica trying to get people to invest in his scheme.

“If it didn’t happen in my village, I wouldn’t have known.

“I don’t know why the people of our country would believe you can get free money like this,” Dr Jagdeo stressed.

He further stated that if business people choose to invest then they are “stupid people” and that he is concerned about elderly people and other vulnerable groups who are duped into investing their monies.

And so, he is warning citizens to report to the police any person who may approach them on behalf of Yuri.

He even went on to urge the opposition coalition APNU to disassociate themselves from Yuri.

“He [Yuri] is telling people when APNU comes back to office, he will get a license,” Jagdeo said.

The Guyana Police Force on Wednesday issued a wanted bulletin for Yuri in connection to 58 counts of fraud.

Yuri and his wife, Ateeka Ishmael, the principals of Accelerated Capital Firm Inc (ACFI), were arrested in 2020 and faced dozens of fraud-related charges.

They were released on bail amounting to close to $30M bail.

In February 2023, police had issued a wanted bulletin for additional fraud charges and failure to report to the police as part of the bail condition.

Some persons who had invested, received some of their monies back, however, the repayment process was subsequently halted after the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) raided the couple’s Coldingen, East Coast Demerara property and seized equipment containing records of their clients.