Published: June 30, 2026
MONROVIA — Six people have been charged in an alleged scheme that police say defrauded Diaconia Microfinance and Deposit-Taking Institution of more than US$301,515 through unauthorized mobile money transactions routed into a single customer’s account.
The charges, laid out in a Liberia National Police charge sheet dated June 29, follow a months-long investigation by the Police Special Investigation Unit into activity at Diaconia’s Red Light Branch in Paynesville between January 2025 and March 2026.
The accused are Lucy T. Yealue, Adama B. Mulbah, Josephine Togba Kamara, John D. Reeves III, Wannie N. Shannon and Emmanuel Success Nyaneor, who has been charged in absentia and remains at large.
Police charged Yealue with criminal facilitation and theft of property. Mulbah faces criminal conspiracy, criminal facilitation, forgery and theft of property. Kamara was charged with criminal facilitation, forgery and theft of property. Shannon and Reeves each face criminal facilitation, and Nyaneor was charged with criminal conspiracy, forgery and theft of property.
Investigators said the scheme began on Dec. 9, 2024, when Mulbah, a former relationship officer at the institution, opened a bank account for Nyaneor. Police allege the account became the primary vehicle for fraudulently obtaining funds.
Mulbah exploited weaknesses in the institution’s internal mobile money system to process unauthorized deposits into Nyaneor’s account, investigators said. On Jan. 7 and Jan. 9, 2025, police allege, he conducted two unauthorized mobile money transactions totaling US$2,660 without the required approval from Reeves, the mobile money custodian and finance officer.
Fraudulent deposits eventually totaled US$301,515.23, of which US$299,061.79 was withdrawn from Nyaneor’s account, the investigation concluded. Police said only US$240 of the money deposited could be verified as legitimate.
Yealue, an information technician, assumed responsibility for Nyaneor’s account after it was transferred to her without the approval of the institution’s group head, investigators said. According to the charge sheet, she bypassed Diaconia’s verification procedures, which required all deposits to be confirmed by a designated mobile money custodian before accounts could be credited.
Despite knowing Mulbah no longer worked at the institution, Yealue relied on mobile money messages allegedly sent by him and credited about US$291,345 into Nyaneor’s account without verification, police allege. Every deposit she made into the account was carried out solely on Mulbah’s instructions, investigators said.
The investigation also implicates Kamara, operations manager of the Red Light Branch, who police say prepared multiple withdrawal slips for Nyaneor without his presence at the bank. Kamara violated policies requiring customers to appear personally for withdrawals and handed the slips to Shannon, a teller, investigators allege.
Shannon processed the withdrawal requests despite Nyaneor’s absence and disbursed cash to Kamara, police said. Surveillance footage reviewed during the investigation reportedly failed to show Nyaneor at the bank during several of the withdrawals. On March 3, 2026, police allege, Shannon processed a US$4,700 withdrawal even though the slip lacked the customer’s account number.
Reeves, the mobile money custodian, failed to reconcile mobile money transactions from 2024 until the fraud was discovered, a lapse police say helped the scheme succeed. Investigators also found that on Jan. 8, 2026, US$130 was transferred from Nyaneor’s account to Kamara’s account without the finance officer’s knowledge or approval.
The Special Investigation Unit concluded that sufficient evidence exists to establish that criminal conspiracy, criminal facilitation, forgery and theft of property were committed, and it has recommended prosecution under Liberia’s Revised Penal Code. The charge sheet was signed by Commander Madison J. Larmie, who led the investigation.
The case is expected to proceed before the appropriate court. The defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
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