Former Finance Minister Gillmore Hoefdraad. File photo courtesy Kaieteur News.
PARAMARIBO--Former Finance Minister Gillmore Hoefdraad, for whom Attorney General (AG) Roy Baidjnath Panday issued a travel ban last week, is likely hiding out in Guyana, it has been reported. This news comes as Suriname’s Parliament was discussing whether to indict Hoefdraad, while his lawyers were trying to block this from happening.
It is not clear when Hoefdraad crossed into Suriname’s western neighbour, but Guyana news website Kaieteur News said that when asked about the matter, Guyana’s Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan did not respond to questions. “Other senior security officials in Guyana said yesterday [Monday – Ed.] that they are unaware of the matter,” Kaieteur News wrote.
Hoefdraad (58) was implicated in the irregularities at the Central Bank of Suriname CBvS, over which former CBvS Governor Robert van Trikt was arrested in February. Van Trikt (48), the son of former Education Minister Lilian Ferrier, was discharged dishonourably for irregularities and misappropriations at the Central Bank: the purchase of a custom-made US $300,000 luxury Land Rover in the UK, as well as an armoured Lexus vehicle, and his approval of the acquisition of several properties since he took office; all of them with monies from the bank.
Hoefdraad later turned out to have been involved in this real estate swindle. Investigators dug up documents that show that in June and September 2019 – during Van Trikt’s tenure at the Bank –, Hoefdraad had sold 17 buildings to CBvS for 105 million euros. Van Trikt’s business partner Ashween Angnoe and Faranaaz Alibaks Hausil, manager Legal, Compliance & International Affairs at the Central Bank, have also since been arrested in the matter.
AG Baidjnath-Panday requested the National Assembly’s permission, in May, to start a criminal prosecution against then Minister Hoefdraad and charge him with 11 criminal counts including fraud and larceny, but this request was not granted, as Hoefdraad enjoyed some sort of ministerial immunity.
On Thursday last week, the AG issued a travel ban against Hoefdraad, who was replaced as minister two weeks ago following the May 25 elections. The AG also repeated his request to the National Assembly for permission for an indictment. Bailiffs were unable to deliver the AG’s summons to Hoefdraad, however. The former minister appeared to have gone into hiding.
But as news broke from Guyana that Hoefdraad may be hiding there, the National Assembly was on Tuesday nonetheless moving ahead with the AG’s request, even as Hoefdraad’s lawyers Frank Truideman and Murwin Dubois were trying to stall this. The attorneys have appealed to the National Assembly not to take the AG’s renewed request into consideration. They referred to double jeopardy rulings that forbade the National Assembly from rolling back previously made decisions. “The case against Mr. Hoefdraad has already been closed,” the attorneys wrote to Parliament.
