Liberian Central Bankers Arrested Over Missing $16.5m

Central bank deputy governor Charles Sirleaf and director of banking Dorbor Hagba were arrested on Thursday while the bank’s former head, Milton Weeks, turned himself over to the police on Friday, police spokesman Moses Carter told dpa. The three accused are yet to be charged, according to Carter. The arrests were made in connection with a recent report by forensic auditing firm Kroll Associates, which possibly implicates the three men in the disappearance of freshly printed banknotes worth 16.5 million dollars between July 2016 and April 2018. The U. S. Embassy in Liberia had requested Kroll to investigate the matter after Liberian media in 2018 reported that a container filled with new banknotes printed abroad had “gone missing’’ upon arrival in the West African nation. Kroll said on Thursday it found “no information to support the allegations,” implying the money must have gone missing after its safe arrival. The report identified “systemic and procedural weaknesses’’ at the central bank as well as weak fiscal and monetary management processes. Until recently, the central bank had insisted that all printed notes were safely secured in the bank’s vaults. (dpa/NAN)]]>