IPNews-Monrovia: The writ of arrest which stated that Crane Currency AB of Tunmba, Sweden ‘did conspire to, and did do, and did commit the crime of criminal facilitation’. Crane Currency AB is customer care facility in Malta.
According to the document, former Central Bank of Liberia employees ‘did knowingly and intentionally collude and conspired with co-defendant Crane Currency to execute two contracts for the printing of Liberian dollar banknotes, prior to approval from the Legislature’, and for printing an excess amount and ‘concealing ‘ the actual amount ‘geared towards defrauding the CBL/GOL to the tune of 2,645,000,000 Liberian dollars
The sheriff received confirmation from a spokesman at the Financial Intelligence Unit of Liberia that charges have been filed against Crane Currency AB, despite the company’s repeated denials that they are under indictment.
When asked by (Shift) how they were going to proceed with the case against them, a spokesman for Crane Currency, located in Boston, USA, said, ‘we continue to stand by the statement we have posted on our website’.
The statement insists that ‘Crane has not been charged with a crime in Liberia’. Despite the writ of arrest. The company claims that ‘in the spirit of openness and transparency, we have also shared all the relevant evidence from within Crane with the authors of the Kroll and Presidential Investigation Team reports.’,
The Kroll report, created for the United States Agency for International Development –USAID, seen by The Shift, states that Crane AB has ‘printed and shipped a greater quantity of banknotes to Liberia’, entered into a contract with the CBL without adhering to procurement policies, and that thee was ‘inconsistency in shipping records provided by Crane Currency AB.
Kroll also repeatedly noted that they were not provided with many of the documents they need, and other documents that they received had issues or were not accurate.
The Presidential Investigative Team report, also seen , fond that Crane Currency AB over printed notes and was ‘overpaid’, $401,469.58, through that was not authorized by the government and was ‘outside the terms of contract’.
The report adds that Crane AB ‘knowingly and willfully conspired with officials of the CBL to defraud the Government of Liberia’, in violation of the law.
They’ should be charged and prosecuted’ for criminal conspiracy and criminal facilitation , according to the report.
A source in Liberia’s Capitol Monrovia, who has been involved in the investigation of the case said Crane Currency’, has not received and indictment’, due to the fact they are no longer physically present in the country.
Another source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that the writ must be served by the Sheriff of the Court, but , ‘I have never heard of a court I Liberia being sophisticated enough to service indictments by mail or by proxy’.
According to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Crane Currency was lured to Malta by his chief of Staff Keith Schembri. Muscat described Schmbri as ‘the catalyst in making sure things got done’ in terms of getting the deal signed.
It was alter revealed that Crane would be using printing equipment made in Komori, which is distributed locally by Schmbri’s company , Kasco wouldn’t be supplying machinery , but that it may be tasked with servicing the machines.
Malta Enterprise gave Crane some 81 millions Euros in loans to entice them to Malta, but both entities have declined to provide further information on this, citing confidentiality.
