The son of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf arrested in Liberia
Charles Sirleaf and four other senior officials of the Central Bank of Liberia, including the former governor of this financial institution, Milton Weeks, are arrested for “misuse of public funds.”
Mr. Sirleaf is suspected of misappropriating some of this money between 2016 and 2018, during which time he was vice-governor of the bank.
Two of the five officials charged in this case are fugitives. A report released last week reveals that millions of US dollars have disappeared from the Liberian Treasury. According to the report commissioned in September by Liberian President George Weah, tens of millions of dollars were printed and imported into the country without authorization between 2016 and 2018.
The judge ordered the detention of the defendants on whom the court has been handing until they could be tried.
An investigation was launched after the country’s authorities reported the disappearance of over 100 million US dollars (75 million pounds sterling) denominated in Liberian dollars.
Containers filled with banknotes had disappeared from the port and Monrovia airport. The disappearance of this money has not been proved by the investigation report. But investigators say the Central Bank of Liberia had acted illegally by printing and bringing to Liberia an amount three times larger than what was planned by the authorities.
