The Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) has secured a court order to detain more than $162 million in gold and cash belonging to Sebastiao De Olivera Moura and GAGO Gold Inc., amid ongoing money-laundering proceedings.
According to a SOCU press release, acting Chief Justice Navindra Singh granted the detention order on Monday, March 23, 2026, under Section 37A of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act.
The order allows SOCU to hold 4,018.15 pennyweights of gold, valued at more than $80.9 million, along with $81.1 million in cash, which is said to be the property of Moura and GAGO Gold Inc.
SOCU said the assets were first detained following a joint operation carried out on February 7, 2024, involving the agency, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Guyana Gold Board, and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission. Those detention orders were set to remain in effect until May 6, 2025.
However, before those orders expired, then Chief Justice Roxane George ordered the release of the assets on April 3, 2025. SOCU subsequently filed five money laundering charges against Moura on April 4, 2025, in alleged breach of Section 3(1)(c) of the AML/CFT Act.
The release stated that on November 26, 2025, SOCU returned the assets in keeping with a court order made the previous day, but later re-seized them and returned to court seeking fresh detention orders.
SOCU argued that the gold and cash are tainted property, proceeds of crime, derived from money laundering, and liable to dissipation if not preserved. The agency also told the court the assets are closely tied to ongoing criminal proceedings in the Magistrates’ Court and are needed as evidence.
In granting the application, Chief Justice Singh ruled that the earlier order for the release of the property did not amount to a finding on whether the assets were tainted. As a result, he found that SOCU was entitled under the law to seize and seek detention of the property.
The court also found that the respondents had failed to raise any viable defence to the detention application and said SOCU had presented sufficient evidence to justify the seizure and continued detention of the assets.
Costs in the sum of $500,000 were awarded to SOCU, with payment ordered on or before April 23, 2026. SOCU was represented by attorney David Brathwaite, while Moura and GAGO Gold Inc. were represented by attorneys Naresh Poonai and Latchmie Rahamat.
