Embattled businessman Azruddin Mohamed has fired back at the government amidst intensifying legal pressure over alleged tax evasion tied to his fleet of luxury vehicles — including a Lamborghini — threatening to release explosive evidence implicating high-ranking officials in the vehicle’s clearance.
In a fiery statement posted Thursday on the Team Mohamed’s Facebook page, Mohamed claimed that the government, specifically the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), is orchestrating politically motivated charges against him in an effort to disrupt his scheduled visit to Region Nine.
“I’ve been informed that the PPP Government plans to institute several trumped-up charges against me to disrupt my visit to Region Nine,” Mohamed wrote. “At least it’s not 19 fraud charges.”
Mohamed is seemingly taking a dig at President Irfaan Ali, who in November 2018 faced criminal charges for allegedly conspiring to defraud the state of approximately $174 million in connection with the controversial ‘Pradoville’ land sales. The charges were brought under the David Granger-led administration and stemmed from Ali’s tenure as Minister of Housing.
Prosecutors accused Ali of acting recklessly between 2010 and 2015 by undervaluing 19 plots of prime state land at Plantation Sparendaam and Goedverwagting on the East Coast of Demerara. The lands were allegedly sold at prices far below market value, without any formal valuation to determine their worth, resulting in significant losses to the state. The charges were withdrawn in August 2020 when Ali became President.
The businessman in his post went on to issue a pointed warning: “As soon as these charges are laid, I will release factual evidence showing the public exactly who facilitated and ordered the clearance of the Lamborghini, since they have such an obsession with it. Bharrat, stay tuned! When the facts come out, you will be left looking ‘phenomenally stupid’. And when the truth surfaces, it won’t be me the country will be looking at.”
The comment appears to be a direct jab at Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, long rumoured to be locked in a quiet political war with the influential Mohamed family.
The businessman’s statement comes against the backdrop of an ongoing investigation by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), which in April accused the Mohamed family of evading nearly $900 million in duties on an array of high-end vehicles, including a 2020 Ferrari, a 2023 Range Rover, a 2023 Rolls Royce, and the now-infamous 2020 Lamborghini Roadster.
According to the GRA, the alleged breaches include false declarations of vehicle values and misuse of re-migrant concessions — with vehicles registered under different family members and associates. The authority claims the 2020 Lamborghini alone resulted in $371 million in unpaid taxes, and additional vehicles under Azruddin Mohamed’s name are linked to millions more in alleged tax violations.
The scandal escalated when GRA officials, accompanied by law enforcement, attempted to seize the vehicles. That operation turned into a tense standoff with Mohamed’s supporters before the businessman secured a court injunction halting the seizures.
Amid the legal battle, Mohamed has turned up the heat on the government for what he claims is an unjust and disproportionate attack on his family.
“Imagine 11 lawyers are being used to bring down one family, and less than that amount is used to represent 800,000 Guyanese citizens!” Mohamed wrote in a separate Facebook post. “It’s quite interesting to see the amount of lawyers hired by the Government and paid for by taxpayers in their legal battle against the Mohameds… It is our hope that the same level of legal representation is currently on Guyana’s legal team at the International Court of Justice in the Guyana/Venezuela border controversy.”
As the case unfolds, Mohamed appears ready to drag government insiders into the spotlight — with the promise of revealing who signed off on the importation of vehicles now being weaponized against him. Whether this threat materializes remains to be seen, but what is clear is that the billionaire businessman is signaling he won’t go down quietly.
