DIRECTOR of Mineral 10 Inc., Vico Cohen a recently incorporated mining company was on Friday arrested and is in police custody as the Criminal Investigation Department looks into fraudulent activities he was conducting in the interest of his company prior and after his company was formed.
Arrested Belgian national Vico Cohen
The Guyana Chronicle Newspaper was reliably informed that the man was arrested from his Georgetown Office by Fraud Investigators after allegations with supporting documents were made against him to the police and which were seen by this newspaper.
Speaking with a source close to the investigation, it was revealed that Cohen a Belgium National along with another man were hired by a company in their homeland by to set up a mining company V.N. Guyalogic here in Guyana in 2010.
V.N. Guyalogic is a mining company engaged in the business of mining, purchasing and exporting of precious minerals, more specifically diamonds.
Cohen who was the company Director was responsible for reporting to his principles back in Belgium on the operations of the local operations and remit purchased diamonds back to them.
The operations went smoothly for a few years until a while when the principles in Belgium realised that they were not getting value for monies which they were sending to Guyana.
However what they did not know was that at the time they began experiencing shortages in the submission of diamonds and cash from the local company, Cohen was busy converting the resources and assets of V.N. Guyalogic Inc. into a new company Mineral 10 Inc. which he was establishing.
Cognizant of the falling short of the local operations, V.N. Guyalogic decided to launch a private investigation into the operations of the local operations and found that while Cohen was working for them he was also working for his company which already formed and up and running. He formed a Diamond Trading and Export company which did the identical business as V.N. Guyalogic splitting the resources.
The company then moved to confront Cohen about his new company and the fact that it was formed using the resources, time and cash of V.N. Guyalogic. He was then forced to give up his position as a director of the company and settle for a contractor position still retained by V.N. Guyalogic.
However as the principles of V.N. Guyalogic sought to keep their operations moving they found that there were several discrepancies with the accounts of the company and decided that Cohen answer to them and set the books straight. Cohen instead opted to resign from the company leaving the paperwork untidy as he focused on his operation.
This newspaper was reliably informed that during the establishment of his new company Cohen was still receiving monies through remittances from V.N. Guyalogic while they were still ignorant of the fact that he was operating a business of his own with their resources.
He was sending them bills and statements for expenditures which raised eyebrows. Cohen established his competition to V.N. Guyalogic on April 8, 2013.
During that period Cohen was still responsible for the entire local operations of V.N. Guyalogic receiving large sums from the company through remittances.
When V.N. Guyalogic sent one of its representatives to Guyana and made him the new director before becoming aware that there was actually another company, monies were still being issued to Cohen but this time by way of cheques.
The cheques however were not written in the name Cohen since according to our information it was told to the new director that Cohen who was by this time a contractor does not want to be seen with large sums of money for security.
It would turn out that the only reason cheques were not being written directly to Cohen was because the other person was his employee and he Cohen want no direct connection to the cheques and receiving the monies for obvious reasons.
During the period that Cohen operated his company to the period that he was asked to hand over all assets of V.N. Guyalogic he would have already received US$1.300.000 which were to be utilised for the purchase of precious minerals inclusive of diamonds and to finance the day to day operations of V.N. Guyalogic Inc.
Later on there was a total of GY$ 47.7 Million which was handed over to the agent of Cohen I whose name he requested the cheques be written. There were several separate cheques which amounted to the latest figure and were to be used for mining and the purchases of minerals and diamonds.
The minerals and diamonds were to be shipped through to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) to the principles outside of Guyana but when that was done the quantity was not in keeping with the figure which was provided for the purchase.
At the moment Mineral 10 Inc. is operating its concessions with equipment and resources which belongs to V.N Guyalogic and which were acquired with the cash sent by the principles of V.N. Guyalogic to transact V.N. Guyalogic Inc. business.
In addition diamonds and precious minerals which were purchased with cash and acquired on the strength of V.N. Guyalogic Inc. were also being exported by Mineral 10 Inc.
The Guyana Chronicle has been reliably informed that the principles of the V.N. Guyalogic Inc. are looking to have every piece of equipment, every concession acquired with V.N. Guyalogic Inc.’s money and every cent of the company which was used by Cohen to start up his business defunct operation.
Yesterday efforts to contact principles from both of the company to get comments on the matter were futile. However this publication was reliably informed that V.N. Guyalogic Inc. is looking to recoup a whopping $179.727 Million which represents exported diamonds and cash remitted to Cohen’s company
Written By Leroy Smith