The Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) was established in 2014 on the recommendation of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF). It was intended to be a police unit operating under the authority of the Commissioner of Police but with a close relationship with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) established under the Anti- Money laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act, Chapter 10:11 of the Laws of Guyana. The Terms of Reference were approved by the Cabinet. These were not disclosed but “the Unit is expected to be dedicated to investigating suspected financial transactions suggestive of money laundering and financing of terrorism,” according to Dr. Roger Luncheon, the then Head of the Presidential Secretariat, who revealed all of the above in a press conference on September 7, 2014 and in previous press conferences.
This was certainly what was understood by then Leader of the Opposition, Mr. David Granger, who at a press conference on October 11, 2014, acknowledged that SOCU was being assigned “as the investigative arm of the FIU.” Mr. Carl Greenidge, then Shadow Minister of Finance, was even more expansive. He said: “The FIU, after receiving that report (from its reporting institutions), will now send it off to the SOCU which will operate as its investigative arm.” From what Mr. Greenidge said at the time, he clearly envisaged SOCU as a desk bound agency, with accounting and financial expertise, checking transactions, following paper trails and then instituting charges where offences are found to have been committed.
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