PHOTO: (L-R) Cllr. Varney Sherman and Cllr. Syrenius Cephus
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, Monrovia- A highly placed source at the Liberian National Bar Association (LNBA) has informed www.newspublictrust.com that both Solicitor General and Chief Prosecutor of Liberia, Cllr. Saymah Syrenius Cephus and Senator Varney Gboto Sherman of Grand Cape Mount County are expected to face the wrath of the LNBA, in connection with sanctions imposed on them by the United States Treasury Department for alleged corruption.
Senator Sherman is one of Liberia’s senior Lawmakers and one of the veteran members of the Bar, who has spent decades in Academia as Professor of Law at the state owned University of Liberia.
On December 9, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) targeted corrupt actors and their networks across several countries in Africa and Asia, including Cllr. Sherman.
The US Treasury Department accused Sherman of habitually bribing Judges and others in Liberian courts: “Sherman offered bribes to multiple judges associated with his trial and had an undisclosed conflict of interest with the judge who ultimately returned a not guilty verdict in July 2019. Sherman has routinely paid judges to decide cases in his favor, and he has allegedly facilitated payments to Liberian politicians to support impeachment of a judge who has ruled against him. Sherman’s acts of bribery demonstrate a larger pattern of behavior to exercise influence over the judiciary and the Ministry of Justice,” the US report said.
When the US report was released, Senator Sherman denied the allegations and said that his Lawyers were working on the case demanding that his accusers provide the necessary evidence against him in line with the due process of law.
Just this week (August 15, 2022), Solicitor General Cephus was accused of bribery and facilitating money laundering in a US Treasury Department report. Shortly thereafter, he was suspended from his post by President George Weah.
“Sayma Syrenius Cephus (Cephus) is the current Solicitor General and Chief Prosecutor of Liberia. Cephus has developed close relationships with suspects of criminal investigations and has received bribes from individuals in exchange for having their cases dropped. Cephus has worked behind the scenes to establish arrangements with subjects of money laundering investigations to cease investigations in order to personally benefit financially. He shields money launderers and helps clear them through the court system and has intimidated other prosecutors in an attempt to quash investigations. Cephus has also utilized his position to hinder investigations and block the prosecution of corruption cases involving members of the government. Cephus has been accused of tampering with and purposefully withholding evidence in cases involving members of opposition political parties to ensure conviction.”
According to our source, currently, there are internal meetings ongoing within the leadership of the LNBA and thereafter, the outcome of the meetings will be brought to the executive committee of the Bar for onward actions against the two members of the LNBA.
It has been indicated that the two top members of the LNBA “have rubbed their institution’s integrity into the mud and public disrepute”.
Our source says as such, the Bar can’t no longer sit and allow them go with impunity.
“They will be duly investigated for both Criminal and ethical misconduct for action for which they were been sanctioned by the US government,” a highly placed LNBA official has said.
Lawyer also wants action against the pair
At the same time, a Liberian Lawyer, Cllr. Jonathan Massaguoi has said it is time that the Bar Association swiftly act to suspend the licenses of Counsellors Cephus and Sherman, in the wake of the grave corruption allegations coming from the United States government.
Cllr. Massaquoi, who is Chief Executive Officer of the International Law Group, said both Lawyers must be investigated and both of them shouldn’t be practicing law in Liberia, until they can face LNBA investigation to exonerate themselves from the sanctions against them.
Cllr. Massaquoi, a firebrand Lawyer, saidn in an interview with Judicial reporters at the Temple of Justice, that if former LACC boss Ndubusi Nwabudike can go under investigation, why is it that the LNBA is delaying to do the same with both Cllr. Cephus and Cllr. Sherman.
He wants two US-sanctioned LNBA members to face the Bar’s grievance and ethics committee and followed by the Supreme Court grievance and ethics committee for onward action against them.
He disclosed that money laundering in which Cllr. Cephus was implicated by the US treasury department sanction report is a serious crime in the sub-region which every country tried to tackle.
Cllr. Massaquoi recounted the numerous programs under taken by the United States government within the LNBA and if the LNBA sits without taken against those members who have been sanctioned, the US government may not release support to the LNBA and also Liberia at large.
“I am disappointed in both the LNBA and the Judiciary for not taking against Cllr. Sherman and and Cllr. Cephus on their sanction issue,” Cllr. Massaquoi added.
The CEO of the International Law Group said that the two Bar members in question are not investigated, the LNBA’s support from USAID might be withheld.