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-PM Hinds misled foreign investors Five years ago, the price of gold was beginning to rise and many investors were positioning themselvesRegan Pollardto cash in on the expected boom.At the time, Guyana was poised for the takeoff. One such investor was a female Canadian Gemologist of Indian origin.She had saved up a few hundred thousand United States dollars and since Guyana was primed for foreign direct investment, the woman immediately jumped at the options available.She travelled to Guyana, which is known for its vast reserves of gold and diamond, with the aim of investing her money even if it meant partnering with a local gold mining company.She met with Prime Minister Sam Hinds who directed her to the executive of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission.Hinds also reportedly recommended Reagan Pollard, whom he described as a diamond and gold exporter.“He (Sam Hinds) told me he thought that he (Pollard) was credible,” the woman told this newspaper.She did not question Sam Hinds’s recommendation of Pollard since an official of the GGMC had mentioned him along with a few others during a previous discussion. She also learnt much later that his mother, Elisabeth Harper, was also a senior Government official.She said that she invested US$300,000 and her US partners invested US$2.5 million for a total of US$2.8 million.Coming from North America, where corruption is not the norm and where the rule of law is one of the hallmarks of life, the investors were optimistic that their investment would be safe.Their dreams were eventually shattered after the business arrangement with Pollard went sour.It is worthy to note that Reagan Pollard was highly recommended.Now penniless and frustrated, the North American investors are engaged in a legal battle to recover their investments.To make matters worse the person who introduced them to Pollard, Sam Hinds, refused to help them recover their investment when one of them met him in April 2013.Now they are desperately trying to get her to agree to keep the matter out of the media.The saga began in May 2010, when the woman met with Pollard and discussed her idea with him.She must have been convinced that he was the right man to deal with, and after that initial meeting she returned to Guyana on several occasions to meet with him to sort out the arrangements.She even managed to convince some of her business associates in New York (a hedge fund) to join her in investing in the project.“I told them about Pollard, that he seems to be an honorable guy,” the woman said.As if they needed further convincing, the investors were taken on a trip to the interior where Pollard showed them an operation of dredges in the Puruni River, which he claimed he and a partner owned.The investors were also told by Pollard that he had 19 kilometers of river mining concessions and 17 land claims.The investors were impressed.Pollard advised them that they would need US$3 M to get two dredging operations going.For the purpose, the investors set up a company which they called Puruni LLC,Cheap Jerseys, incorporated under the laws of Delaware, USA, with a registered office in New York.According to court papers, on April 17, 2012 Puruni LLC formally entered into a joint venture agreement with Pollard and his company, Reflex Mining Company Inc. for the purposes of operating a dredge or dredges on Pollard’s mining claims.They began wiring money to Pollard and over eight months, they had sent US$2.8M.The money was reportedly wired from Chase Manhattan Bank in New York to a local bank account Pollard operated.While collecting the funds Pollard kept informing the investors that progress was being made, and they waited patiently for their returns on the investment.But eventually they kept receiving excuses after excuses about why the operation was not producing any gold or diamonds.“It was excuses like, the river was flooded; the generator broke and other things,” the Canadian investor.Sensing that something was amiss, the investors insisted on hiring their own local Accountant to look into the financial aspect of their operations here, however they were never able to be privy to the details of how their money was spent.“Reagan never showed us the books,” the woman told Kaieteur News.Eventually, after two years had elapsed and no significant returns on their investment were forthcoming, the woman and her overseas partners got fed up and began pulling the plug on Pollard.In the court documents, the investors stated that Pollard failed to comply with his obligations under their agreement despite repeated requests made to him.Not wanting to get into a court battle initially, the Canadian woman, who by now was feeling embarrassed for dragging the other investors in, decided to visit Guyana in 2013 to meet with officials to arrange an amicable settlement.She told Kaieteur News that when she told Pollard that she was travelling to Guyana to meet with Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who had recommended him to her in the first place, Pollard allegedly threatened to “make her disappear”, forcing her to seek the assistance of the then Canadian High Commissioner in Guyana, David Devine.This newspaper has seen several pieces of correspondence from the woman to the High Commissioner requesting help.Upon arrival in Guyana, she sought an audience with the Prime Minister and after repeated requests, she was eventually able to meet him and begged him for his help.But instead of getting assistance, the woman said that the Prime Minister told her to take the matter to court as it was a commercial dispute.She even tried meeting with Elisabeth Harper, who held a high ranking position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.But her efforts failed.Devastated, the woman returned to Toronto with the sad story to tell her North American partners.A few months later Pollard travelled to New York and met with the investors who agreed to amend their previous agreement and settle the matter by turning their investment into a loan that Pollard agreed to repay.This was after the investors threatened legal action against him.A document purporting to be some kind of promissory note was then prepared and signed by Pollard and his mother, Elisabeth Harper, agreeing to honour the commitment to repay the $700M loan with interest, beginning October last year.But up to November, Pollard had only repaid $6.3 million.The investors were now left with no other alternative to move to the court to compel Pollard to honour his obligation.The lawsuit was filed last December and was set for a first hearing in February.According to the investor, they recently learnt that Pollard’s mother Elisabeth Harper was named as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the PPP/C and they were incensed.Apparently not wanting the matter to derail her Prime Ministerial ambitions, Harper and her son have reportedly been desperately trying to contact the angry investors to come to an amicable solution.“We want our investment returned. My life has been completely broken by this mother and son. I have no life, no place to live. Even my hedge fund partners are angry with me because I had introduced them to Regan,” the Canadian-Indian stated.