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Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat yesterday stated he was unaware of any use of cryptocurrency here to enable gold smuggling.
He offered a terse “no” when asked by Stabroek News about allegations made by We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) Leader Azruddin Mohamed.
Meanwhile, the Director of the Financial Intelli-gence Unit (FIU) Matthew Langevine said that no specific reports on this activity had been received for 2024. However, the Direc-tor noted that legislation exists which bans such untraceable virtual currency activities.
“The government has passed legislation in the compliance commission act of Guyana in 2023… there is a provision which prohibits any type of virtual activity in Guyana because there is no regulatory body in place to supervise or manage those activities.”
The FIU Director confirmed that Suspicion Transaction Reports (STRs) they do receive lead to intelligence reports, which are then disseminated to law enforcement. The “very significant majority” of these reports go to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), with smaller scale reports going to the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).