Lall to Jagdeo on Gold Smuggling Accusation: ‘Let the Chips Fall Where They May’

Former Guyana Gold Board Chairman and outspoken columnist GHK Lall has issued a fiery response to Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo’s directive that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) investigate alleged links between government officials and the Mohameds’ gold smuggling network, an investigation that reportedly includes Lall himself.

The development follows a Demerara Waves report on October 16 titled “Jagdeo instructs GRA, police probe of government officials for Mohameds gold smuggling allegations link.”

Lall, in an op-ed, welcomed the investigation but warned that the probe could expose far more than the government anticipates.

“I am glad that Dr. Jagdeo has initiated this step. Let it lead where it leads, let the chips fall where they do,” Lall stated.

Jagdeo, according to the report, called for “a full-fledged investigation” into individuals from the Guyana Gold Board, explicitly naming Lall and others “who may have been complicit in assisting the Mohameds to (allegedly) evade the massive sum of taxes.”

Lall, who served as Gold Board Chairman between 2017 and 2020, said he is ready to cooperate fully, while sharply criticizing what he views as a politically motivated smear campaign.

“The Guyana Police Force is free to launch, to conduct, any ‘full-fledged investigation’ of GHK Lall. That’s me, and they know where to find me,” he declared.

“It seems that GHK Lall is the sum of state officials in Guyana from 2017 to 2024, i.e., in a PNC Government and four years of a PPP Government. It is a distinction that I take with mixed feelings.”

The columnist accused the government of engaging in repeated “witch hunts” since returning to power in 2020, claiming that his public criticism of the administration has made him a target.

“From the hour that the PPP retook the reins of government in August 2020, GHK Lall was among the highest of its priorities,” he wrote.

“Within weeks there was what was called an investigation into the Guyana Gold Board ops… I call it what it was: a witch hunt, the first of several.”

Lall further argued that despite more than five years of political and administrative scrutiny, no evidence of wrongdoing has ever been found against him.

“The PPP Government of Bharrat Jagdeo has had over five and a half years to peek and probe, to investigate and regurgitate… Yet, here I am still standing, by grace,” he said.

Turning his attention directly to the Vice President, Lall warned that the move to investigate him could backfire.

“This will turn out to be more than Dr. Jagdeo bargained for, because it will be his Guyana Police Force that is more under scrutiny than me,” he asserted.

“I can assure Vice President Jagdeo that the can of worms that he thinks he is opening will put he himself and his government under the sharpest scrutiny.”

Concluding his commentary, Lall reiterated his confidence that truth will ultimately prevail:

“Know the truth and the truth shall set free. Better yet, live those same truths and there is no reason to fear any man… Remember: when the truth is known and lived, the truth will set free.”

The probe comes amid widening fallout from U.S. federal investigations into large-scale gold smuggling from Guyana, allegedly involving politically connected business figures Azruddin and Nazar Mohamed. Lall’s inclusion in Jagdeo’s public call for a police probe signals a new phase in the controversy—one that, by his own admission, could “open a can of worms” for the government itself.