A prominent rice miller of Essequibo Coast, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) has found himself in hot water after he allegedly issued a cheque valued over $10 million to another prominent rice miller in his region knowing that he was committing a crime.
Reports are that the man owed the other rice miller, identified as Roopan Ramotar aka “Fowlcock” almost $31 million for 4.64 tonnes of rice that the man had credited to him.
After some time, the rice miller made no attempts to pay Ramotar for the large quantity of rice, thus resulting in Ramotar having to constantly contact and pressure him into making payments.
As such, the rice miller handed Ramotar a cheque for the sum of $10 million as part of the payment to the outstanding sum.
However, Ramotar, upon arriving at a commercial bank to change the cheque, was told that the account had insufficient funds to cater for the large payment.
The man then made several attempts to contact the rice miller to notify him that the cheque rebounded but was unsuccessful in reaching him.
This prompted Ramotar to visit the Anna Regina Police Station where he produced the bounced cheque to investigators and lodged a formal report.
Police Commander of Region Two, Superintendent Crystal Robinson explained that the rice miller was subsequently arrested and is currently in Police custody pending investigations.
Meanwhile, several other rice farmers have suffered the same fate in the hands of the businessman.
He reportedly is in the habit of failing to pay the rice farmers but in the past, the farmers never lodged a report.
A few years ago, the rice miller was hauled in by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) over linkages to questionable payments relating to the Venezuela rice-oil deal.