MRL sued again…Another rice farmer has sued the Mahaicony Rice Limited (MRL) and this time the embattled company is being asked to repay over $98M in outstanding monies.This latest court action follows one last week which was filed by Essequibo rice farmer and businessman, Arnold Sankar,
Arjen Robben Bayern Trikot, who is asking for $125M.According to Anil Nandlall, one of the attorneys hired by Sankar, a lawyer for the MRL appeared before Justice Rishi Persaud on Friday and agreed that the company will lodge a bank guarantee for $125M by tomorrow on the condition that the shipment of rice valued at a hefty $200M be allowed to leave.Attorney-at-law Anil NandallHowever, on Friday, New York-based farmer, Mohamed Shariff, through Attorneys-at-law Nandlall, Manoj Narayan and Euclin Gomes, filed court documents, which claimed that between March and April, he sold and delivered to MRL a quantity of paddy valued at $108M. Some $10M was deducted for land rent owed by Shariff to MRL in respect of certain land rent owed by the Plaintiff to the Defendant, leaving $98,165,
Maillot Psg Personnalis?,003. He also asked for the same rice not to be removed or loaded aboard any ship.Shariff, in his claim, said the company acknowledged owing him and had committed to start payments by July 12th.“To date, almost one month has elapsed since the Defendant promised to commence payment and despite the several requests and demands of the Plaintiff, the Defendant has failed, refused, neglected and omitted to commence payment of the aforesaid sum,” the claim said.The farmer asked the court for an injunction restraining MRL from removing or loading on board any ship the 5000 tons currently stored at Muneshwar’s Wharf.Alternatively, MRL is asked to lodge $98,165,003 and interest and costs. The matter comes up on September 1.In court documents filed by the same lawyers last week,Sankar, in an ex-parte application by way of an Affidavit for Interim Injunction, claimed he acted as an agent of MRL, using his own money to purchase paddy from other farmers, which is then resold to the company on a commission-basis.Sankar claimed he has secured loans from GBTI to finance purchases.Claiming he owed the bank in excess of $100M, the Airy Hall businessman stated that between September 2009 and November 2009, he purchased approximately 113,
Maillot Psg Femme Personnalis?,000 bags of paddy to the tune of $251M from farmers in Essequibo, which were fully paid for using his own money. The paddy was delivered to MRL.Attorney-at-law Manoj NarayanHowever, between March 19 and April 2, 2010, Sankar said the company paid five cheques,
James Rodriguez Trikot Bayern, valued $25M each, which were rejected by a local bank.“I have made repeated demands to the Respondent/Defendant for payment of the aforesaid sums but to no avail.”Sankar further claimed that MRL is getting ready to ship this weekend, over $200M worth in rice which is stored at Muneshwer’s Wharf, at Water Street,
Manuel Neuer Trikot Bayern, Georgetown.“From the time I have supplied the aforesaid paddy to the Respondent/Defendant to date,
Maillot Psg 2018/19 Pas Cher, they have shipped hundreds of millions of dollars of rice out of Guyana but nonetheless have refused to pay me or the rice farmers who have sold and delivered paddy to them,” the businessman claimed.As a result, Sankar said that he is claiming the $125M, which represents monies from the bounced cheques, and an injunction restraining MRL from removing or loading approximately 5000 tons currently stored at Muneshwer’s Wharf until further ordered, or alternatively, unless and until they lodged $125M at the court.Sankar also claimed that MRL is indebted to him for another $50M for paddy, which was sold and delivered to them earlier this year, and for which no payments were made.Over the past weeks, there has been mounting pressure on MRL after several complaints from rice farmers to government regulators about non-payments.Several rice farmers had staged picketing exercises at a Black Bush Polder facility, Region Six, and also at Mahaicony.Officials of the Guyana Rice Development Board, regulators of the rice industry, have said that they were facing problems getting MRL to pay farmers for more than $300M in paddy taken during the last crop.Recently, another amendment was made to the law that will force millers to lodge 10% cash value of their last crop value before milling licences are issued.GRDB and Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, in addition to promisi
