Third Bond, Third Setback: Court Gives Bundoo’s Surety 30 Days to Find US$1.34m

Published: September 1, 2026

MONROVIA — Nora Finda Bundoo’s sureties have until Oct. 1 to produce another US$1,342,280, after Criminal Court ‘C’ ruled Tuesday that the third bond filed for the former presidential chief of protocol still falls short of the US$8 million the court requires.

Assigned Circuit Judge Ousman F. Feika accepted a US$6 million bond from Accident and Casualty Insurance Company after examining its assets and liabilities, but found that a US$2 million bond from American Underwriters Group International Insurance Company could not be supported by the company’s finances.

The court put American Underwriters’ current assets at about US$3.208 million against current liabilities of about US$2.790 million, and found that only US$417,720 was available to stand behind its bond, leaving US$1,582,280 of that bond unsecured.

Adding the qualifying portion of the American Underwriters bond to the US$6 million and to a US$240,000 bond posted earlier by Kai Garlo Farley, the court put the total valid security at US$6,657,720, or US$1,342,280 below the threshold.

Feika ordered that the deficient portion of the American Underwriters bond be augmented within 30 days of Sept. 1, and said the bond will be approved only when the package meets the US$8 million requirement. He also ordered that Bundoo’s passport and all other travel documents remain in the court’s custody.

It is the third bond package to run into trouble. On July 3, Feika set aside earlier surety bonds after finding the sureties insufficient and not qualified to file them, and gave Bundoo 72 hours to produce a new criminal appearance bond. Property valuation bonds were then submitted; the prosecution objected, and on July 21 the court ruled on those bonds and set the US$8 million threshold. The two insurance bonds followed.

The prosecution argued that the proposed bonds were grossly inadequate and failed to satisfy the statutory objectives of bail. Bundoo argued that bail is meant to secure an accused person’s appearance and should not be fixed so high that it exceeds the accused’s means.

Bundoo, who served as chief of protocol at the Executive Mansion under former President George Weah, is being prosecuted alongside other defendants on charges of money laundering, theft of property, misuse of public money, property or records, criminal conspiracy, forgery and criminal facilitation. The Montserrado County Grand Jury returned the indictment Nov. 5, 2025.