Special task force joins embassy probe
A special task force has been set up which is assisting the US Embassy in its investigation into the visa sale scam for which its former Economic Affairs Officer, Thomas Carroll is before a US Federal Court in Chicago, Illinois USA. Stabroek News understands that the task force has been given carte blanche to pursue its investigation wherever it leads and to question anyone it requires to interrogate. The task force is believed to be an inter-agency team including specially selected police officers. Eton Cordis, one of the employees of the US embassy who has been fired, and who is believed to have been a close associate of Carroll is in its custody. Cordis with his attorney, Basil Williams, reported to the CID headquarters on Wednesday, but his whereabouts have not been made known either to Williams or to Cordis's immediate family. Williams told Stabroek News that Cordis had informed his family that he had been taken from the CID to the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit's Homestretch Avenue headquarters. Williams said he feared his client was questioned by US agents without him being present. Stabroek News understands that Cordis was taken from the CANU headquarters to Alberttown Police Station on Wednesday night. On Thursday he was moved again by the Task Force but neither Williams nor Cordis' family were told of his whereabouts. Williams said he was contemplating bringing habeas corpus proceedings in an attempt to gain access to his client and was awaiting instructions. One of the two other dismissed employees of the embassy, Stabroek News understands, has been interviewed by the task force. Also likely to be interviewed, this newspaper understands, is a serving senior police officer who reportedly had a close association with Carroll. A US Justice Department lawyer in testimony at the bail application hearing for Carroll had told the court that two officers of the Guyana Police Force were associated with the activities of Carroll and his local associate Halim Khan. Both the police and the Ministry of Home Affairs have said that they have not been notified of the identity of the officers. They were not named at the hearing. The task force was set up as a result of the government's pledge to cooperate fully with the US authorities in their investigations into Carroll's activities in Guyana. Carroll and Khan, a spare parts dealer and restaurant owner from West Coast Demerara, have been charged with visa fraud, producing false visas, bribery. They are being held without bail. The scheduled bail hearing for Khan yesterday was put down without another date being set. Carroll's next hearing is set for May 12, when the State will report as to the status of its case. Carroll and Khan were arrested on March 17, - Carroll at his parents' home just outside Chicago; Khan at the Miami airport. Some US$1.8 million including currency and gold bars have been seized by the federal investigators from safe deposit boxes and bank accounts under Carroll's control. Until he approached and identified his connection to Carroll to Benedict Wolfe, who was cooperating with federal authorities, at the Miami airport, Khan's involvement in the scheme was unknown. Khan has been active in the community policing group in his area and has sponsored a number of programmes run by the Muslim community in his area. He has also conducted a number of cultural tours to Canada and reportedly was well known to a member of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service through one of his female acquaintances.
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