—- As Gov’t Seeks U.S. Assistance to Freeze Several Accounts
IPNEWS: Several sources both in the Liberian government and international cycles have hinted the authoritative Independent Probe that former Finance and Development Planning Minister, Samuel Tweah, including seven others are to formally be indicted by the government of Liberia for various crimes allegedly committed during the government of former President George Manneh Weah.
According to the leaked cable, all named persons to be formally indicted include current Margibi county Senators Nathaniel McGill, and Emmanuel Nuquay, Nimba County Senator Prince Y. Johnson, Rivercess Senator Bill Twehway, Grand Kru county Senator Albert Chie, former Solicitor-General Sayma Syrenius Cephus, former Grand Cape Mount County Senator Cllr. Varney Sharman, and former Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee.
Sources further revealed that the Liberia government has also requested the United States government assistance in freezing several accounts owned by the named persons.
Several accounts according to sources are thought to be in the Ivory Coast, South Africa, Ghana, Turkey, China, and Doha, the United Arab Emirates.
Currently five of the named persons, i.e. Prince Y. John, Nathaniel McGill, Emmanuel Nuquay, Bill Twehway, and Albert Chie are all Senators in the Liberia Legislature.
The constitution of Liberia provides that ‘No member of the House of Representatives or the Senate is to be arrested for a discretionary duty done or any duty by law performed and any statement made in the chambers of the Legislature. The people’s Representatives when elected are privileged at all times until a constitutional amendment’.
However, under the doctrine of separation of powers, the Legislative branch is the only institution that regulates itself and regulates the two order branches of government as provided for under the constitution of Liberia. In the event of the privilege exceptions; like treason, breach of the peace and felony. Good governance necessitates the Executive Branch to present the facts to the Speaker and members of the House of Representatives or The President pro-tempore and members of the Senate for self-regulatory action against its own without fear or favor against any of its members. Either House whose member may be involved in any of the exceptions, a committee is usually best constituted for an investigation. If from a due process investigation, evidence corroborates otherwise with an allegation from the Executive, the constituted committee would report to the full plenary, and the plenary would determine a decision of the cause established and with the concurrence of two-thirds of the entire membership a House concerned, under its adopted rules of procedure can enforce an order by expelling, suspending or warning a member. In an event of an expulsion, the veil of legislative privileges or immunities is removed, thereafter, any executive action could be appropriate in law, but, until then the contrary is notwithstanding.
Pursuant to Section 7031(c), the United States is publicly designating Tweah, Chie, and Nuquay, a for their involvement in significant corruption by abusing their public positions through soliciting, accepting, and offering bribes to manipulate legislative processes and public funding, including legislative reporting and mining sector activity. As part of this action, their immediate family members are also designated, including their spouses Delecia Berry Tweah, Abigail Chie, and Ruthtoria Brown Nuquay, and Tweah and Nuquay’s minor children.
Additionally, on December 8, Treasury designated Mayor of Monrovia Jefferson Koijee pursuant to E.O. 13818 for engaging, or having been a leader of an entity that has engaged in serious human rights abuse and corruption. In addition to serious human rights abuse, Koijee engaged in corrupt acts, including bribery and misappropriation of state assets and pressuring anti-corruption investigators to halt all corruption investigations.
Section 7031(c) provides that in cases where there is credible information that officials of foreign governments have been involved in significant corruption or a gross violation of human rights, those individuals and their immediate family members are generally ineligible for entry into the United States and must be either publicly or privately designated.
Also on December 9, 2021, the Government of the United States has slammed “Economic Sanction” on Liberian Senator Prince Yormie Johnson (PYJ), for corruption in what appears to be ongoing efforts to enclose the notorious warlord for eventual war crimes charges.
The U.S. Treasury under its Global Magnitsky Act, in observance of International Anti-Corruption Day, officially celebrated globally. The day was also celebrated in Monrovia by the Government of Liberia.
The United States Embassy near Monrovia detailed that as a Senator, PYJ has been involved in pay-for-play funding with government ministries and organizations for personal enrichment.
It says as part of the scheme, upon receiving funding from the Government of Liberia (GOL), the involved government ministries and organizations launder a portion of the funding for the return to the involved participants.
“The pay-for-play funding scheme involves millions of U.S. dollars. Johnson has also offered the sale of votes in multiple Liberian elections in exchange for money. Johnson is designated pursuant to E.O. 13818 for being a foreign person who is a current or former government official, or a person acting for or on behalf of such an official, who is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery”, says the release.
Senator Johnson is a notorious warlord and leader of the defunct rebels Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) that captured and killed former President Samuel Kanyon Doe at the Freeport of Monrovia on September 10, 1990 during the Liberian Civil War.
He is current Senator for Nimba County and former Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Security, Defense, Intelligence, and Veteran Affairs, a post the United States Government asked him to vacate earlier this year.
Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Report documents Johnson as having committed atrocities during the country’s first civil war.
Eerier on December 9, 2020, on International Anti-Corruption Day, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) , pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13818, sanctioned Cllr. Varney G. Sharman, while serving as Senator, Grand Cape Mount County.
According to the U.S. sanctioned, Harry Varney Gboto-Nambi Sherman (Sherman), now a prominent lawyer, Liberian senator, and Chair of the Liberian Senate Judiciary Committee, offered bribes to multiple judges associated with his trial for a 2010 bribery scheme, and he had an undisclosed conflict of interest with the judge who ultimately returned a not guilty verdict in July 2019. Sherman has routinely paid judges to decide cases in his favor, and he has allegedly facilitated payments to Liberian politicians to support impeachment of a judge who has ruled against him.
In the 2010 scheme that led to this trial, Sherman was hired by a British mining company in an effort to obtain one of Liberia’s last remaining mining assets, the Wologizi iron ore concession. Sherman advised the company that, in order to obtain the contract, they first had to get Liberia’s procurement and concessions law changed by bribing senior officials. In 2016, Sherman was indicted by the Liberian government, along with several other government officials, for their involvement in the USD 950,000 bribery scheme. In 2019, the presiding judge acquitted all individuals accused of being involved in the bribery scheme. Sherman’s acts of bribery demonstrate a larger pattern of behavior to exercise influence over the Liberian judiciary and the Ministry of Justice.
