New York – Amid a surge in financial and budgetary scandals and the lack of accountability in Africa, international financial security experts say there are possible reasons to fear that the US$25 million which officials of the George Weah-led government claimed the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning infused into Liberia’s economy without any trace and accountability during its inflationary saga might have fallen into the wrong hands, probably financiers of the ruthless terrorist organization Hezbollah, according to report.
In less than a year in power, with former footballer turned politician Weah as president, the Government of Liberia continues to be at the center of massive corruption allegations, including the unsolved case of the disappearance of some 16 billion Liberian dollars and US$25 million intended to mop up the excess liquidity of the local currency from the fast dwindling economy.
In July of last year, President Weah announced the infusion of US$25 million dollar in the economy aimed at addressing the fast-galloping speed at which the country’s economy was deteriorating, committing his government that the infusion of US$25 million was to help mop up excess liquidity of the Liberian dollar on the market in a bid to curb the rising foreign exchange rate, which has witnessed the Liberian currency falling 20% against the US dollar, but to date, commercial banks operating in the country have no record of how that money was disbursed or which businesses benefited.
“To lessen the immediate negative impact on our people, it will be an urgent imperative to devise and implement short-term fixes to the current problem — an immediate infusion by the CBL of US$25 million into the economy to mop up the excess liquidity of Liberian dollars,” President Weah said at the time.
Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel Tweah claims his ministry gave the money directly to “Money Changers” in the streets without providing a list of proof of who those money changers are. To date, nobody knows where the money disappeared to, with members of the National Legislature also reportedly having no clue of the whereabouts of money either.
Reports have it that one U.S. Treasury official who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “when a country has an excessively corrupt and dysfunctional legislature like Liberia, transparency, and accountability become non-existent.”
Concerns abound for the infused US$25 million because Hezbollah’s operatives are posing as businessmen in several West African countries, including Liberia, hustling for globally accepted foreign currency such as the U.S. dollars to conduct their affairs internationally.
In a published article entitled, Hezbollah’s operations in West Africa – Blogs – Jerusalem Post in the Jerusalem Post by Rob Dyer, it said that several terror groups’ financial agents own and operate businesses in Africa which they use to fuel resources to their terror networks. These groups also use an informal economic setting and medium such as black-market money exchange activities to secure foreign currencies.
Because of these reasons, the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are actively engaged in investigating money laundering and other forms of financial transactions, especially those outside of the United States, beginning with the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York City.
To understand the FBI’s role abroad, it is essential to look at how the bureau changed in the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001. After those attacks, the FBI moved away from its traditional role of investigating domestic crime to a new focus on counterterrorism and intelligence gathering. This transition has been widely documented and is openly accepted by the bureau itself. According to an FBI report on its counterterrorism program after 9/11, an illegal financial transaction is one primary tool used by terror groups to keep them operational.
A top U.S. counter-terrorism official says this presents a need for the U.S. Treasury and the FBI to launch a money laundering and terrorism financing investigation, holding the Central Bank of Liberia and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning to account.
