Jagdeo refuses to answer questions on his wealth

At a press conference at Freedom House, yesterday, former President, Bharrat Jagdeo refused to answer questions on his accumulation of wealth.

Jagdeo mansion

He was also unwilling to allow more than two questions directed to him from reporters attached to Kaieteur News.
Instead of giving the nation, through the media, an explanation of how he became one of the richest men in the Caribbean overnight, Jagdeo chose to swiftly navigate himself away from accountability.

A reporter asked him to explain how he was able to build his mansion on his presidential salary.

He was also asked how he could not have given much money to his wife—Varshnie Singh—when they spilt on the grounds that he did not have, but soon after, he could afford to build a seaside mansion, probably the most extravagant house in Guyana.

But, the man who professed yesterday to be a transparent individual sidestepped the question.

Former President Jagdeo

“I am prepared but not to Stabroek News and anyone else. I am prepared because that is what I said.”

When Jagdeo and his wife split in 2007 it was hell for her to get her benefits. Up to 2009, there could have been no amicable settlement as Jagdeo kept saying he could not afford to give her much.

In January of 2009, a distressed Singh told the media that “the President told me that if I don’t agree to his settlement figure of $5M, he and his government would not deal with me and the hospital project will not happen.”

Varshnie Singh

Singh added, “Our President says he is willing to let a judge decide what he must pay. Which Judge would
be willing to hear the case and be impartial, when the most powerful and vindictive man in the country is involved?”

Jagdeo had at that time claimed that if he was to split his assets in half he could have only been able pay his ex-wife $5M.

But two years later, he moved into a mansion that sits on a two-acre plot of land at Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara-the land according to Jagdeo, cost $5M per acre.

Jagdeo could not have explained this yesterday. He could not tell the media if it were a case where he did not state his real wealth in 2009 or if it is that he acquired a vast amount of wealth in just about two years, without winning the lottery.

Varshnie had said that Jagdeo told her she has no right to government resources. “Yet tax payers’ money is being splurged to pay for resources for his employees when they crash state cars, or need anything.”

The couple was married according to Hindu rites in 1998. Singh told reporters that there were at least three attempts to register the union but Jagdeo derailed the process.
Singh had noted that the law stipulates that in the division of property, a woman in a common-law marriage is entitled to a share of the property acquired during the marriage.

She said her decision to go public was a last resort. “I wanted to avoid conflict because he is powerful and I am an ordinary person and even if I know I tell the truth it can be spun around.”

On the division of assets, Jagdeo had told the media that the issue was jointly discussed with Singh and his lawyer and he showed her copies of his declaration of income and assets to the Integrity Commission over the period that they were together.

The Opposition has time and time again made attempts to get Jagdeo to say how he acquired his wealth. Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, is on record saying that Jagdeo entered office with “nothing.”

Government had heavily defended Jagdeo saying he had a right to his sprawling home. They had criticized an aerial shot of the seaside compound, which is equipped with pool and all.

Jagdeo’s sale of his first home in Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara, while he was in office, for a whopping US$600,000 ($120M) had also raised eyebrows.