–US official says, as Embassy rebuts claims of interference
THE United States has again rejected claims that its extradition case against Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed is politically driven.
A senior US Embassy official said the charges come from evidence of wrongdoing, not from Guyana’s politics.
Jarrod Crockett, Public Affairs Officer at the US Embassy in Georgetown, as reported by Kiskadee Watch, said that the US justice system operates independently of foreign political processes.
“The United States does not pursue criminal charges for political reasons,” he said, adding that prosecutors act when there is enough evidence for a grand jury to return an indictment.
His comments responded to a Wednesday statement by the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA).
The GHRA, which has faced immense scrutiny over its leadership and unaudited finances, questioned whether Washington was serving justice or helping the Government remove its main political opponent. It also raised concerns about US legal representatives appearing in local proceedings at the government’s expense.
Crockett said the charges concern wire fraud, money laundering, gold smuggling and sanctions violations, not political speech, association or opinion. He said the alleged activity began in Guyana but involved Miami-based entities and US commercial and financial infrastructure, which links it to US law.
As reported by Kiskadee Watch, he said Washington initiated the extradition request but plays no part in the domestic proceedings before Guyana’s courts.
He pointed to Attorney General Anil Nandlall’s November 2025 clarification that outside lawyers were engaged to act on the request under the bilateral treaty.
The matter is now before the courts, and Crockett said the US has no expectation or timeline for a decision because “it is not our process to control.”
When the magistrate decides, he said, the US will proceed from there.
It was reported that the US formally submitted its request on October 30, 2025, and that the Treasury Department’s sanctions on the Mohameds were announced in 2024, before Mohamed said he was running for office.
Nandlall had made a similar point. He said the investigation began in 2017 and the alleged conduct spans 2017 to 2024.
The legal fees have been a recurring flashpoint. The US Embassy said in November 2025 that the attorneys in the proceedings are retained by the Guyana Government, not the US Government.
Nandlall said lawyers from outside Guyana were brought in, with US approval, to insulate the process from allegations of political interference, and that Guyana must pay for them. He said the US likewise paid for lawyers when Guyana sought Marcus Bisram’s extradition for murder.
Mohamed and his father, Nazar Mohamed, deny wrongdoing and are contesting the extradition.
Their lawyers have argued in court that the US acted as an agent of the Guyana Government for an improper political motive.
At a press conference last month, Mohamed again suggested the government wants him out of the country.
This contradicts a record in which the United States is the country seeking his extradition. Guyana’s role, it said, is to process the request through the legal framework and leave the courts to decide.
US Ambassador Nicole Theriot made the same case earlier this year.
She said the US does not pursue charges for political reasons, and asked why it would take on a case it did not expect to win.
She also noted that the Mohameds would remain under US sanctions even if the extradition request failed.
She has said the US is “100 per cent committed” to the extradition and does not spend taxpayer dollars on requests it is not serious about.
The proceedings began on January 6 and have run nearly 10 months, with only two prosecution witnesses heard so far.
The extradition case stems from an October 30, 2025, request by the United States for the surrender of the Mohameds to face an 11-count federal indictment.
The indictment includes allegations of wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and customs offences.
US prosecutors alleged that the two businessmen participated in a multi-year scheme involving the export of Guyanese gold using falsified customs declarations and reused government export seals, allegedly resulting in the evasion of more than US$50 million in taxes and royalties.
The indictment also concerns a Lamborghini vehicle, with prosecutors alleging that Azruddin caused the vehicle to be shipped from Miami to Guyana and used a false invoice that understated its purchase price, resulting in more than US$1 million in allegedly avoided Guyanese taxes.
The two men were arrested on October 31, 2025, and each was granted $150,000 bail, with conditions requiring them to surrender their passports and report to the Ruimveldt Police Station.
The committal proceedings commenced on January 6, 2026, but have been repeatedly interrupted by legal challenges filed by the defence, most of which have ultimately failed.
The Mohameds were sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury in 2024 over allegations of corruption and a gold-smuggling scheme and were subsequently indicted by US federal grand jury on related charges. The father and son have denied the allegations.
