Chinese national Ying Xin Su, a 30-year-old travel agent, was slapped with seven charges of money laundering by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) of the Guyana Police Force on Thursday.
Su, who had previously been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition without a licence, appeared before the Georgetown Magistrates Court where the gravity of her latest charges was laid bare.
Su was accused of laundering large sums of illicit money through properties and motor vehicles. These assets were allegedly obtained through criminal means, violating the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act (Chapter 10:11) of Guyana. She did not enter a plea during her brief court appearance, which was presided over by Acting Chief Magistrate Faith Mc Gusty. The court granted Su bail, setting the sum at a hefty $1.5 million for each of the seven charges.
In a related session on the same day, Su also appeared before Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman at the Diamond Magistrate Court, where she faced a single additional charge of money laundering. For this charge, she was granted bail in the sum of $200,000. All cases have been adjourned to April 17, 2025, for further proceedings.
The charges stem from an investigation that began after a raid on Su’s hotel room at the Princess Ramada International Hotel, located in Providence, East Bank Demerara. On July 9, 2024, officers discovered a staggering sum of $52 million Guyanese dollars, along with foreign currencies amounting to $5,480 USD, $97 Barbadian dollars, and $662 Surinamese dollars. The police also found an illegal firearm and ammunition. The discovery followed suspicions of gold smuggling linked to Su’s operations.
According to Deputy Commissioner Fazil Karimbaksh, head of SOCU, the investigation into Su’s activities had been ongoing for the past eight months, and it was only now that the time was right to charge her. “These types of criminal activities cannot go unpunished,” he stated. “Our investigations will continue, and we are sending a strong message to anyone involved in illicit financial dealings that the long arm of the law will catch up with them.”
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