Liberia probes disappearance of $100m in central bank money
Liberia probes disappearance of $100m in central bank money
African nation launches ‘national security’ investigation and bars officials from travelling
Liberia is investigating the disappearance of more than $100m of newly printed bank notes intended for the central bank in a possible fraud worth 5 per cent of the impoverished west African country’s gross domestic product.
In a statement, the ministry of justice said it was investigating the disappearance of “containers and bags of money” worth nearly L$16bn passing through Monrovia port and Roberts International Airport.
If the money is not recovered the loss would be comparable in size to a 2016 cyber theft from Bangladesh’s central bank in which $101m went missing from the bank’s account at the New York Federal Reserve.
Although the dollar amounts are similar, Liberia’s economy is roughly 120 times smaller than that of Bangladesh, making the relative size of the loss far greater.
The ministry of justice stressed that the money had arrived in Liberia last November during the previous administration of Ellen Johnson Sirleafand before the new president, former football star George Weah, took over the presidency in January.
It has barred several former officials from leaving the country, including Milton Weeks, former central bank governor, and Charles Sirleaf, a son of Ms Sirleaf and a former deputy bank governor. The government said the investigation had “national security implications”.
Liberia’s central bank does not have its own mint and the money was ordered from overseas companies including Crane Currency, a Swedish banknote producer, according to documents seen by the Financial Times.
Rodney Sieh, founder of FrontPage Africa, a newspaper that broke the story, said the money may have gone missing several months after it arrived in Monrovia, which if correct would place its disappearance during the time of the current administration.
“The story has taken on a life of its own,” he said. “They [the government] are afraid. It is embarrassing them and they are scared of what’s going on,” he said. “They are trying damage control, but it’s all still very muddy.”
An organisation calling itself the Coalition of Citizen Action Against Mass Looting in Liberia said it would organise a mass protest and press for an independent inquiry into the missing money.
It called the money’s disappearance the most “horrific mystery” since 1847, referring to the date that Liberia, which was founded by freed American slaves, declared independence from the US.
Ms Sirleaf, the former president and a recipient of the Nobel Prize, has been widely lauded internationally for stabilising her country after her election in 2005 following two devastating civil wars.
But at home she was blamed for the weak performance of an economy hit by falling commodity prices and an outbreak of Ebola in 2013. She was also criticised for alleged nepotism after two of her sons, including Charles, were appointed to senior positions.
In the past, Ms Sirleaf has denied any question of nepotism, saying that her sons were fully qualified for the positions they held and that her administration lacked a wide choice of competent, trustworthy professionals.
Liberia, one of the poorest countries in the world, has an annual GDP per capita of $729, according to the International Monetary Fund.
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