Guyana police scandal

The second highest-ranking officer in the Guyana Police Force has been charged with 240 fraud charges related to allegedly abusing his office as the force’s chief administrator to acquire nearly $5 million in cash and assets through a series of recently established procurement companies that had placed him in prime position to be the main procurer of supplies to the force, among other complaints.

Calvin Brutus, who has been acting as the senior deputy police chief for more than a year, is at the center of a soap opera-style saga that has set the Caribbean Community nation alight with discussions about the level of corruption in officialdom, the absence of proper monitoring systems, and how the force is normally used by top officers before they retire, at age 55, to make millions and then ‘ride into the sunset’ as happy men and women.

Brutus is the highest-ranking police officer ever to be indicted and charged with a felony crime in living memory. The cabinet has said he will be made an example if found guilty.

On Thursday, Brutus, his wife Adonika Aulder, his driver, Sergeant Kevin George, and businessman Asif Zafarally, 34, were paraded before a city magistrate. They were charged with a range of financial offenses, from money laundering to obtaining money by pretense, misconduct in public office, liability of officials, and larceny by public officials.

They were all placed on bail. The magistrate read only 30 of the 240 charges investigators say they have for the four. She set Nov. 18 for another court hearing, at which the magistrate will read another batch of charges to the group.

Investigators at the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) say the systems in place all went wrong when Brutus allegedly tried to deposit nearly $85,000 into his account at the force’s credit union at the end of last year, to the consternation of staff, who later returned it for breach of union rules.

Once a probe of this event had started, investigators later discovered that Brutus had allegedly accepted large amounts of cash from business associates. He claimed in official filing documents that these were gifts “before, during, and after” his wedding to Aulder at the trendy, high-brow Pegasus Suites a year ago. SOCU also has evidence that the former number two top cop had not collected his monthly salary of about $2,500 for nearly four years.

But the heart of the allegations against him also relates to accusations that he had instructed a finance unit officer to issue checks of $70,000 from a special account for goods to the force, knowing that these were never supplied or delivered. Additionally, they claim that he had ordered that a check for $300,000 be cashed for repairs and maintenance of police buildings, knowing that no work was started or completed.

Police have since frozen several commercial bank accounts belonging to Brutus, his wife, driver, and toddler son while they investigate the situation further.
The deputy commissioner has told reporters, “I intend to vigorously defend these matters because there is clear evidence that what is happening is a matter of manipulation of evidence, fabrication of evidence just to make out a case against me and myself, and the team will defend all the allegations that are made, and we are certain that we will be victorious. There is a background to it and it will come out in the constitutional case. All those details will come out very soon,” he said as heavily armed SWAT police teams descended on his police headquarters apartment to arrest him last Thursday.

The case has been a main topic of discussion for most social groups here, as rumors and reports of abuse of procurement and other systems in Guyana’s military and paramilitary are common knowledge.