The High Court has dismissed a legal challenge filed by businessman Nazar Mohamed and his son, Azruddin Mohamed, seeking to overturn the revocation of their foreign currency dealer licence by the Bank of Guyana.
Justice Damone Younge on Thursday rejected the application brought by the father-and-son duo, who operated under the name Confidential Cambio, and ordered them to pay costs of $250,000 to the Bank of Guyana. The sum must be paid on or before April 10, 2026.
The proceedings were filed on June 13, 2025, asking the court to declare that the revocation of their cambio licence on June 13, 2024, was unlawful, null and void, and of no legal effect, and requesting that the licence be restored.
In her ruling, Justice Younge rejected the applicants’ contention that they were denied an opportunity to be heard before the licence was revoked. The court noted that a letter dated June 12, 2024—attached to the applicants’ own filings—expressly invited them to attend a hearing.
According to the court, the applicants acknowledged receipt of the notice by email and confirmed their attendance but ultimately did not avail themselves of the opportunity to be heard.
The judge also dismissed the applicants’ claim that the Bank of Guyana had predetermined the matter or that the June 12, 2024 correspondence itself revoked the licence.
Instead, the court found that the Bank of Guyana was lawfully vested with the authority to revoke the licence under the Dealers in Foreign Currency (Licensing) Act and exercised that authority properly.
Justice Younge further agreed with submissions by the Bank of Guyana that the applicants were guilty of undue delay in instituting the proceedings, noting that the case was filed one year after the revocation and after the licence would have expired in any event on December 31, 2024.
The Bank of Guyana moved to revoke the licence shortly after Nazar Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed were added on June 11, 2024, to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals list as sanctioned individuals.
Azruddin Mohamed later entered politics and currently serves as Guyana’s Leader of the Opposition after his We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party secured 16 parliamentary seats in the 2025 general elections.
Both Azruddin Mohamed and his father have also been indicted by a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on multiple charges, including fraud and money laundering linked to alleged gold-export schemes.
Authorities in Guyana are currently considering a U.S. request for their extradition, and the matter is before the courts as part of ongoing extradition proceedings.
The applicants in the cambio matter were represented by attorney Darren Wade, while the Bank of Guyana was represented by attorney Pauline Chase.