PHOTO: Abdullah Kamara, former LTA boss
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, Monrovia- Criminal Court “C” at the Temple of Justice presided by its assigned Judge Ousman F. Feika over the weekend granted a change of venue motion filed by former Liberia Telecommunications Authority boss Mr. Abdullah L. Kamara.
Defendant Kamara’s motion to change venue of his case was based on Article 21(g)which talks about right to speedy trial.
In his change of venue motion, he claimed that most of his material witnesses are likely to travel out of Liberia and therefore, he wants for his trial to be held during the February 2026 A.D. term of court.
On September 4,2025, a writ of arrest was issued on defendant Kamara for his re-arrest after he was firstly cleared by the court on August 1,2025 for wrongly being indicted by the government.
The case has now been transferred to the Second Judicial Circuit Court in the port City of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County pending trial and determination.
In early September of 2025, A Montserrado County grand jury has returned a true bill re-indicting former Liberia Telecommunications Authority chairman Abdullai L. Kamara on six corruption counts tied to the Liberia Digital Transformation Project, triggering his re-arrest and a brief detention at the Monrovia Central Prison before a judge approved a criminal appearance bond of $295,033.33 for his release Tuesday.
The 12-page indictment, brought by and through the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) and signed by Chief Prosecutor Cllr. Bobby F. W. Livingstone, accuses Kamara and Tamma Corporation, through its CEO Fabian Laveland, of benefiting from no-bid, no-contract payments initiated at the LTA in 2023 under the “pretext of contributing to Corporate Social Responsibility activities.” Grand jury forelady Grace L. Gbelawoe and five other jurors marked the charging instrument “TRUE BILL,” advancing the case to trial in the August Term A.D. 2025 of Criminal Assizes ‘A’, presided over by Resident Circuit Judge Roosevelt Z. Willie.
While the bond clears the way for Kamara’s temporary liberty, he now faces allegations of economic sabotage, including fraud on the internal revenue and misuse of public money and records, theft and illegal disbursement and expenditure of public money, theft of property, misapplication of entrusted property, criminal facilitation, criminal solicitation and criminal conspiracy. “The Grand Jury for Montserrado County, Republic of Liberia, upon their Oath do hereby find, more probably than not,” the document states, “that you the within named Defendants, Mr. Abdullai L. Kamara … and Tamma Corporation by and thru its CEO, Fabian Laveland committed the crime of Economic Sabotage … felonies of the first degree.”
Why the state came back with a fresh bill
Court filings and the charging instrument point to three central reasons for the renewed action. Prosecutors say Tamma Corporation was hand-picked to roll out the digital project “without regard to the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission’s procedure and regulations” and “without any bidding process,” a posture they argue runs afoul of Liberia’s public financial management regime. They also claim the company received a series of payments from the LTA operational account absent a written contract, an approved scope of work or authorization from the LTA Board. Those transactions include an initial pair of transfers on May 18 and 19, 2023 totaling $54,500 in U.S. dollars in two tranches and L$22.5 million in Liberian dollars, followed by a series of disbursements between June and November 2023 that prosecutors say added up to $1.2 million. Finally, once a grand jury returned a new true bill setting out the statutory theories more clearly, Criminal Court ‘C’ ordered Kamara back into custody to bring him under the authority of the updated counts while bond was argued.
A judiciary official told The Liberian Investigator the bond figure reflects the alleged scale of financial exposure in the case. Kamara was later released.
The paper trail the grand jury says it followed
The indictment traces the matter to a proposal “named and styled ‘The National Transformation Initiative for Liberia,’” which it says was formulated in May 2023 by the Business Development Team of Tamma Corporation to deliver digital awareness, inclusion and empowerment for young people to spur economic growth. It notes that Tamma was registered on Jan. 20, 2012 as an information technology and creative services company and that Kamara served as incorporator, shareholder and chief executive officer.
On June 16, 2023, then–Minister of State for Presidential Affairs G. Wesseh Blamoh wrote to LTA Chair Edwina Crump Zackpah, directing the LTA “to secure funding to roll out the Liberia Digital Transformation Project” and recommending Tamma “to form part of the Committee for the implementation of the Project,” according to the letter cited in the indictment. The grand jury says that the recommendation preceded payments that bypassed the ordinary procurement and contracting process. Investigators “established that there was no contract entered into between Tamma Corporation and the Liberia Telecommunications Authority …; no scope of work to measure performance,” the document says.
The charging instrument alleges that Zackpah, as LTA chair, unilaterally authorized the May 18–19 transfers and the later tranches through November 2023, “under the pretext of contributing to Corporate Social Responsibility activities,” and that the money was “withdrawn and expended from the operational account of the LTA without authorization from the Board.” The grand jury asserts that payments flowed to “Abdullai L. Kamara, former CEO of Tamma Corporation, and Tamma Corporation by and thru its CEO, Fabian Laveland” and that “the said amount cannot be accounted for.”
The indictment also references a second letter by Blamoh on Sept. 20, 2023, ordering the Digital Transformation Committee to include 231 Data Inc. “to support the achievement of the Digital Transformation Project objectives.” Prosecutors characterize both letters as evidence of executive direction influencing the project’s implementation.
How the law is being applied
On economic sabotage, prosecutors cite Section 15.80, which makes it a first-degree felony to “knowingly conspire or collude to defraud the Government of Liberia,” to “make an opportunity for any person to defraud the Government,” to omit acts to enable another to defraud the Government, or to “make or sign any fraudulent entry in any book or record of any Ministry or Agency of Government.” They also quote Section 15.81 on misuse of public money, property or records, which criminalizes knowingly converting government records or money to one’s own use, receiving such property with intent to convert it, or disposing of entrusted property as a fiduciary in a manner known to be unauthorized and risky to the Government’s interests.
For theft and the illegal disbursement and expenditure of public money, the indictment points to Section 15.82, which covers failures to render accounts for public funds, misappropriation of government property and receiving property of the government known to be stolen. It also invokes Section 15.51 on theft of property, which includes knowingly taking or converting another’s property with intent to deprive the owner, obtaining property by deception or threat, or receiving stolen property with intent to deprive the owner. Section 15.54 elevates theft to a second-degree felony when the value reaches $50,000 or more.
Misapplication of entrusted property, framed in Section 15.56, is set out as disposing of or using entrusted property in a way known to be unauthorized and known to involve risk of loss or detriment to the owner or the government. Prosecutors say funds entrusted for LDTP activities were diverted without the contract and oversight safeguards that would ensure value for money.
What investigators say happened and what they say did not
The state’s narrative seeks to show that Kamara held a dual role: as a former Tamma executive and as an alleged beneficiary of LTA funds pushed through by the LTA chair. The document insists there was no procurement process and no written contract establishing scope, milestones or deliverables. It emphasizes board authorization, stating that the sums were taken from the LTA operational account without the Board’s approval and that the money “cannot be accounted for.”
At the same time, the bill acknowledges that Tamma submitted a performance report and that investigators placed confirmation calls to participants across all 15 counties. That report listed training in general digital skills, digital marketing, GIS and data collection, and e-commerce, with totals across categories reaching several hundred attendees. Despite those references, the indictment maintains that the records produced do not demonstrate value for money or compliance with the law and therefore are inadequate to justify the outlays.
Defense posture and the presumption of innocence
Kamara has denied wrongdoing in public commentary related to earlier iterations of the case, and as of Tuesday no formal answer to the re-indictment had been filed on the public docket reviewed by this newspaper. Under Liberian law, an indictment is only an accusation. Kamara and Tamma Corporation are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Defense lawyers succeeded in persuading the court to accept a criminal appearance bond, a standard pretrial mechanism designed to ensure a defendant’s return to court. With the bond approved, Kamara is permitted to remain free pending arraignment and trial. The amount gives the state leverage: should the defendant fail to appear, the bond can be forfeited.