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The Second State witness in the ongoing Global Witness corruption case has admitted to what the first witness stated about the defendants laundering money through account and spread sheets.
During the trial, the state first witness told the court that, H. Varney Sherman launder money through the account of Sherman and Sherman to bribe some officials of government to change the PPCC Act in favor of Sable Mining that Cllr. Varney Sherman sent Financial Report dated 30 June under the caption “FOR EYES ONLY-ONE COPY ONLY” which was an expenditure report regarding funds transferred by Sable Mining Africa to Liberia and showing the illegal Payments that were made in addition to other payments.
The first state witness rested on March 22, 2017 with his testimony and the second state witness D. Blamo Koffa on the same day took the witness stand.
Kofa previously work as a chief investigator for the Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) and is currently working with the Liberia Revenue Authority as Complaint manager took the stand, admitting how money was launder to bribes government officials.
The case emanates from Report entitled “The Deceivers” published by the global Witness on May 11, 2016.
Global witness is an International NGO established in 1993 with offices in London and Washington.
The report alleged that Sable Mining Africa, LTD acquired stake in Delta Mining which was operating in Liberia, and devised a scheme and system to bribe officials of the Government of Liberia to change the procurement laws in order for Sable Mining to obtain prized mineral concession below market prices, principal of which is the Wologizi mountain range in Lofa, County Liberia through its lawyer in Liberia, Cllr. Varney Sherman,
The total amount of bribes and questionable payment from all sources was Nine Hundred Fifty Thousand United States Dollars (US$950, 000)
Blamo told the court that, the acts of the defendants to transfer huge sum of money from one point to another where it will not be noticeable is amount to money laundering.
He said money laundering has three stages placement, layering, and integration which was not furthered detailed by the witness.
I researched the meaning of the three stages and discovered that, money is laundered whenever a person or business deals in any way with another person’s benefit from crime.
Placement which was earlier on referred to by the witness is the stage at which criminally derived funds are introduced in the financial system.
Layering, the substantive stage of the process in which the property is ‘washed’ and its ownership and source is disguised and Integration is the final stage at which the ‘laundered’ property is re-introduced into the legitimate economy.
The witness in his testimony said, several serving and former government officials of Liberia, who were at the time in different positions of trust and relevance were paid bribes, a testimony that was said on the records by the first state witness Mark N. Kollie.
Blamo said payments were also allegedly made to unidentified people referred to as “Big boy 01” and “Big boy 02” in the tone Two Hundred Fifty thousand United States Dollars (USD 250,000.00) each totaling Five Hundred thousand or half a million United States Dollars. This same statement was on recorded by the first state witness.
Accordingly the witness named several others that were previously named by the state first witness, among them are Dr. Richard Tolbert (former chairman of the National Investment Commission),Cllr. Morris Saytumah (former Minister of State for Political Legal & Economic Affairs, Dr. Eugene Shannon (former Minister of Lands& Mines),Sen. Cletus Wortorson (former President Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate, Sr. Senator from grand Kru County, Liberia)Prof. Willie Belleh (current Chairman of the Public Procurement & Concessions Commission),Mr. E.C.B. Jones (former Deputy Minister of Lands Mines & Energy),Hon. J. Alex Tyler (former Speaker of the House of Representatives, representative from district #1 Bomi County among others. The first state witness also named some of the defendants above and connected them to the money laundering scheme.
The trial continues Thursday March 23, 2017.
