Published: December 3, 2024
Temple of Justice, Monrovia – Criminal Court ‘C’ at the Temple of Justice, under the gavel of its resident judge, A. Blamo Dixon, has scheduled Wednesday, December 4, 2024, for the commencement of the corruption trial involving former Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah and four other ex-officials of the previous Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) government.
The defendants—Tweah; Cllr. Nyanti Tuan, former Acting Justice Minister and Solicitor General; D. Moses P. Cooper, former Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA) Comptroller; Stanley S. Ford, former FIA Director; and Jefferson Karmoh, former National Security Advisor to President George Weah—stand accused of siphoning LD$1,055,152,540 and US$500,000 during their tenure in office.
The trial follows indictments handed down in September 2024 after a complaint filed by the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) through the Ministry of Justice. The charges against the five include economic sabotage, theft of property, money laundering, misuse of public funds, criminal conspiracy, and criminal facilitation.
On December 4, 2024, the defendants will appear in open court for arraignment, during which they will plead either guilty or not guilty to the charges leveled against them.
This case stems from allegations that the officials orchestrated a systematic plundering of public resources, violating Liberia’s Anti-Money Laundering and Economic Crimes statutes.
The investigation gained traction earlier this year when Cllr. Tuan, Cooper, Karmoh, and Ford were arrested and detained on July 29, 2024, at the Monrovia Central Prison. Former Finance Minister Tweah, who was outside the country at the time, later returned to Liberia to face justice.
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