On Monday, September 21, 2026, Nazar “Shell” Mohamed, a billionaire Guyanese businessman currently wanted by the United States to face trial for alleged financial crimes alongside his son Azruddin, issued a public statement pushing back against growing public speculation over an alleged improper relationship with High Court Judge Gino Persaud, who recently ruled in their favor in a high-stakes civil tax case.
In the carefully worded statement, the elder Mohamed sought to eliminate all ambiguity surrounding the pair’s connection to the judge, emphasizing that he and his son have never met Persaud, either during his prior career as a private attorney or his tenure on the High Court bench. Mohamed stated that Persaud has never engaged in any business dealings with the father-son pair, and the two parties share no personal, professional, or social ties of any kind. The only link between them, Mohamed confirmed, is that legal matters involving his family were assigned to Persaud in his official capacity as a sitting High Court judge.
Persaud, who delivered a ruling favorable to the Mohameds in the multimillion-dollar civil tax evasion case, was recently blocked from boarding a flight bound for Jamaica – where he planned to attend a judicial conference with a transit stop in Florida – after learning his U.S. visa was placed under official review. As of Monday, Persaud has not made any public comment on the visa situation or the broader controversy surrounding the case.
The elder Mohamed drew a direct connection between the judge’s visa troubles and fierce public criticism of Persaud leveled by Guyana’s top government officials following the tax ruling, which centered on luxury vehicles including a Lamborghini and a Ferrari owned by the Mohamed family. President Irfaan Ali, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, and Attorney General Anil Nandlall all publicly condemned the ruling, adding to a longer pattern of public pushback against the judge from senior government figures.
Against this backdrop, which also includes the Guyanese government’s hiring of U.S.-based lobbyists to tie the Mohameds to ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Nazar Mohamed said he has growing doubts that he and his son will receive a fair adjudication of their ongoing legal matters in Guyana’s domestic court system. He argued that the visa issue creates a coercive chilling effect that could intimidate sitting judges from ruling in the pair’s favor out of fear of professional or personal repercussions.
“Judicial independence demands that a judge be able to reach a decision rooted exclusively in applicable law and presented evidence, free from concern over which parties will be angered by the outcome or what consequences may follow that ruling,” Mohamed said. “No judge should be forced to question whether a ruling against the government will put their career, their ability to travel internationally, their reputation, or their personal life at risk.”
Notably, Mohamed was once a prominent public supporter and financial backer of the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic, the current ruling party in Guyana. The Mohameds first drew international legal scrutiny in June 2024, when the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed formal sanctions on the pair over allegations of tax evasion connected to gold exports from Guyana. They now also face an 11-count grand jury indictment in U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of Florida, which charges them with wire fraud, money laundering, and mail fraud tied to their formerly registered gold trading business.