-While Police investigate mysterious death of CBL official, Matthew Innis over the weekend
After being held in police custody over the weekend, the son of former President Ellen Johnson Sirlea, Charles Sirleaf as well as former Central Bank of Liberia Governor Milton Weeks were on Monday put behind bars at the Monrovia Central Prison on multiple criminal charges related to the reports on the 16 billion Liberian dollars saga.
Charles Sirleaf, who is Deputy CBL Governor for Operations and former Governor Weeks were on Monday, March 5, 2019 arraigned before the Monrovia City Court at the Temple of Justice along with the CBL’s Director of Finance, Dorbor Hagbah.
Because of their failure to file a L$5.29 billion bond, the three men were whisked off to the Monrovia Central Prison several blocks away.
The three current and former Central Bank officials were charged with Criminal Conspiracy, Economic Sabotage, Misuse of Public Money, Property or Records and Illegal Disbursement and Expenditure of Public Money.
Meanwhile, the Liberia National Police (LNP) says it has launched a manhunt for two other CBL officials in connection with to ongoing economic sabotage case and Criminal Conspiracy case.
Police say the two are Richard H. Walker, I, and Joseph G. Dennis.
President George Manneh Weah had earlier on Sunday told Reporters that he was happy that his CDC government has been “vindicated” by the independent forensic investigation report released last Thursday.
Cambridge dictionary defines vindicate as: “to prove that someone is not guilty; the action of clearing someone of blame or suspicion..”
The Writ on the five men said, “That during the period January, AD. 2016 up to and including February, A. D. 2018 in the City of Monrovia, Montserrado County, Republic of Liberia, Co-defendant, Charles E. Sirleaf while serving as Acting Central Bank Governor, purposely with the wicked criminal intend, connived and conspired with other officials of the Central Bank of Liberia and the aforesaid co-defendants all of whom un-authorizingly and intentionally printed and caused the printing of excess Liberian Dollars banknotes (L$146,250,000.00) for which the amount of US$401,469.58 was paid to Crane Currency by the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) on the 5 billion Liberian Dollars Banknotes printing and US$433,898.14 for the excess Liberian Dollars printed (L$359,750,000.00) on the 10 billion transactions, and additionally failing to account for L$2,645,000.00, which the said defendants out of deception criminally converted to their personal use and benefit with the intent to deprive the government and its citizens thereof. The actions on the part of the defendants have the propensity to cause serious economic instability, undermine the government and caused its citizen to rise up against it.”
In another development, the police issued an official reaction to the “mysterious death” of an official of the Central Bank of Liberia over the weekend, after the release of the missing billions reports.
According to a FrontpageAfrica newspaper report quoting family sources on Monday, Mr. Matthew J. Innis, CBL’s Deputy Director for Micro-finance in the Regulation and Supervision Department “was found mysteriously dead in alleged hit and run incident.”
“This family source maintained that they don’t believe that Innis was involved in a hit-&-run accident but that he might have been murdered and his body dumped near where he lived,” FrontpageAfrica reported.
Later on Monrovia, the Liberia Police issued a press statement saying that it “has launched an immediate investigation into the death of a 48 year old man identified as Matthew Innis, a resident of 72nd Community in Paynesville and a former employee of the Central Bank of Liberia who allegedly died in a fatal road traffic accident on Sunday, March 3, 2019 at 0200hrs.”
The LNP “urges the public to remain calm as it investigates the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident.”
The police are also calling on the public “to desist propagating hasty conclusions ahead of a Police investigative outcome.”