These, the fleeing refugees, must be at the centre of sustaible  peace

Taylor’s Foreign Accounts Emerging With Emmanuel Shaw as Conduit

25 May 04

A umber of bank accounts of exiled former President Charles Taylor are surfacing, with Global Witness revealing an unsigned letter by Emmanuel Shaw, now advisor to interim leader Charles Gyude Bryant,  authorising payments into Taylor’s overseas accounts.  Global Witness, in uncovering the accounts, noted:

The exiled indicted war criminal told Nigerian television recently he owns no foreign bank accounts, and thet if the UN finds them, they should be seized. But Global Witness, in its report this week, said:

“More recent investigations have uncovered a draft payment request letter from a close associate of Charles Taylor, which details potential payments to be made into four accounts on Taylor’s behalf, in Monrovia, New York, Zurich and Frankfurt. It is not known if payments were made into these accounts, and Global Witness does not purport that these potential payments, if transacted, would have been illegal. However, as they evidence the potential for cross-border financial transactions, they warrant further investigation.

The existence and use of such offshore and overseas accounts points to Taylor’s ability to store and move assets across the globe if necessary. All four accounts, and any linked accounts, must be thoroughly investigated by the Panel of Experts on Liberia and Security Council embargo committee.”

The accounts are:

ACCOUNT NAME: Charles G. Taylor

ACCOUNT NUMBER:

LIBERIAN BANK FOR DEVELOPMENT & INVESTMENT (“LBDI”)

New York, USA:

ELECTRONIC TRANSFER:

 
Frankfurt, Germany:

ELECTRONIC TRANSFER:

ELECTRONIC TRANSFER:

UNION BANK OF SWITZERLAND

The revelations confirm allegations in Monrovia that the underground business network which Charles Taylor established has been extended by Charles Gyude Bryant with serious implications for stability. In a recent press statement, the Minister of Post and Telecom, Eugene Nanbge, protested the Taylor-Emmanuel Shaw company, Lone Star, sustained monopoly in areas such as the Internet and mobile phone services.  According to sources.   Global Witness further warned:

“With his numerous business interests, stretching back through 14 years of corrupt rule, there will be myriad bank accounts in various names and in various countries through which Taylor may have stored, and have access, to assets. Previous Global Witness investigations identified accounts linked to Taylor in countries including Burkina Faso and Switzerland. At least two accounts exist in Burkina Faso, with the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) and Banque International du Burkina (BIB), and are held under Taylor’s alias Jean-Paul Somé98.

“Money from the sale of natural resources has been deposited in the BIB accounts since theearly 1990s, when Taylor led the NFPL in Liberia’s civil war of 1989 – 199699. Another account in Zurich, Switzerland, was set up for Taylor in 1993 by Grace Minor, a close associate and former President Pro-Tempore of the Liberian Senate100. It was through this account that some logging revenue was transferred, en route to the accounts in Burkina Faso101. Moreover, export documents from OTC specify the bank and routing details for timber payments, but where that timber revenue went, and who maintains control of the accounts, remains unknown.”  The report said:

“Global Witness investigations have uncovered an unsigned letter dated 18 August 2003, that is understood to be from Emmanuel Shaw to President Taylor, in exile in Nigeria. Shaw, who is head of Lone Star Airways and the monopolistic phone service provider Lone Star

Telecommunications, served as Finance Minister and business advisor to the Taylorgovernment and remains a close associate of Taylor. The letter details plans to establish fivenew companies, registered in the Republic of Nigeria, to serve as a special purpose vehicles (SPVs) through which Taylor could restart business operations and earn an income. It isunclear whether the companies were to be incorporated as ‘Newco’, or whether it was simplya temporary title. The companies would be in the following sectors:“Newco” Holdings and Investment Company Limited

“Newco” Trading Limited

“Newco” Aviation Company Limited

“Newco” Shipping Company Limited

“Newco” Properties Limited

Meetings were held on 18 August 2003 with lawyers in Calabar, Nigeria, to discuss the process and details of setting up these companies. Further meetings were held with a private bank on 18 August 2003, regarding the financing of the companies.

Excerpts from the report:

Taylor’s Old Business Arrangements that may still bear fruit

Global Witness has obtained information regarding the following business arrangements, towhich Taylor had, and may still have, access.

A company in the Isle of Man

There is evidence that in 1999 the Liberian government purchased an offshore company in theIsle of Man. The company was ostensibly set up to serve as a financial tool to ease thepurchase of a mid-sized executive jet for President Taylor; however, the offshore company was maintained even though the aircraft deal fell through. The company’s nominee shareholders were ‘to sign undated stock transfers, and directors and officers are to sign undated resignations, which are to be provided to the undersigned, together with the entireorganizational and secretarial documentation’. It was further instructed that the company beallowed to operate bank accounts102. What role this company has played since is unknown,but the existence of an offshore company created by the Liberian government and authorisedto make financial transactions, is of concern and warrants further investigation.

Oil

Over the years, numerous companies have performed explorations gathering seismic data, inadvance of what was hoped to be an oil boom in Liberia. The country is located on the fringesof the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea region, and recent discoveries in Mauritania, and Sierra Leone’sown round of off-shore licensing in 2003, have led to renewed interest by petroleumcompanies103.

While the exploration for oil may not have yielded any large finds yet, the importation of petroleum products has historically been lucrative. The Liberia Petroleum Refining Company(LPRC), which had a monopoly on the import of petroleum products, has long served as agenerator of extra-budgetary revenue. Taylor’s ex wife, Agnes Reeves-Taylor, sits on theboard of the LPRC, and the UN Panel of Experts on Liberia calls Mrs. Belle Dunbar, director ofthe LPRC, one of the ‘select few and trusted individuals’ who ‘collected budgetary and extrabudgetary revenues, forced themselves into partnerships of private companies on Taylor’s behalf and dispersed collected funds as directed by Taylor.’ The Panel of Experts notes that such activities may have yielded Taylor and his associates significant revenue, as ‘there is a strong suspicion that the importers or others may have pocketed all taxes and gains totalling several million dollars’ from just two shipments in 2003104. Unless properly controlled, money derived from the recent increase in fuel imports for the UN and NGO workers could meaneven more money goes to Taylor.

As part of his exile arrangements with Nigeria, which is hosting his exile in Calabar, Taylor isto make no contact with elements within Liberia for political or other purposes. However, hehas violated this condition and the Nigerian government has officially and publiclyreprimanded Taylor twice for meddling in domestic Liberian affairs93. Taylor has admitted tocontacting associates in Liberia, including Moses Blah, his former deputy and President of acaretaker government in 2003. Despite Taylor’s officially restricted access to Liberia viatelephone and other means, he still wields significant influence over financial interests inLiberia, using relatives, associates, bodyguards, mistresses and friends as go-betweens for hisbusiness interests.

 Following a Trail of Money

Key to cutting off Taylor’s ability to cause further destabilisation is to determine which bankaccounts, businesses and individuals have been, and remain, involved in providing him withassistance. Global Witness and UN Panel of Experts on Liberia investigations have uncovereda number business transactions and bank accounts linked to Taylor, which must be thoroughlyinvestigated to ensure that they in no way provide assistance to the exiled former president.

The UN Panel of Experts on Liberia has confirmed that ‘former President Charles Taylor hasdiverted and continues to divert revenues and assets of the Government of Liberia’94, throughhis remaining connections in the country. Just before leaving office for exile in Nigeria, Taylorand his associates executed a number of deals that allowed Taylor to take significant amountsof money with him into exile. The Panel of Experts on Liberia reports that on 8 May 2003, anemployee of Ecobank Liberia took US$800,000 in cash on Taylor’s behalf to Belgium; it isunclear where the money went or into which accounts it was transferred95.

The Panel of Experts on Liberia also reports that in June 2003, the Central Bank was asked topay out US$700,000, in cash, to government officials. The Governor of the Central Bank, Mr.Charles Bright, travelled back from Ghana to Liberia to personally oversee the payments,concerning which the Panel of Experts reports there are strong indications that the entireamount was given to Taylor for use in Nigeria96.

Global Witness has found evidence of another potential movement of government revenue inthe final days of the Taylor government. On 29 July 2003, a Promissory Note was drafted forthe Ministry of Finance, to be paid on 1 August 2003 to a company called Sovpid InterpreisLtd, which is registered in Cyprus. The unsigned letter, which was to be signed by CharlesBright and approved by Taylor, was for US$1 million97. This draft suggests that there was anintention to pay out this sum of money, which would be surprising given the timing, as itcame just as Taylor’s forces were in retreat in the face of the LURD and MODEL advances andonly two weeks before Taylor left office for exile.

Freezing Taylor’s Assets

Security Council Resolution 1532 places economic sanctions on Taylor, his immediate familymembers, including his wife Jewel-Howard Taylor and son Charles ‘Chuckie’ Taylor Jr, ansenior officials of the former Taylor regime, or other close allies or associates’105. This is not thefirst time that the international community has taken action to seize Taylor’s assets, as on 7March 2003 the Special Court of Sierra Leone called on all states to locate and freeze any bankaccounts linked to Taylor and others under investigation for war crimes in Sierra Leone.

Swiss accounts were targeted in particular, as the Special Court had estimated that proceedsfrom diamond sales totalled several hundred million Swiss francs, or at least US$160 million atcurrent exchange rates106. While full details of the Swiss investigations have not beendisclosed, a total of only US$1.5 million was eventually frozen107. With Resolution 1532, theSecurity Council established a committee to oversee the protocol found below:“Also expressing concern that former President Taylor, in collaboration with others stillclosely associated with him, continues to exercise control over and to have access to such misappropriated funds and property, with which he and his associates are able to engage inactivities that undermine peace and stability in Liberia and the region,’‘1. ...all states in which there are, at the date of adoption of this resolution or at any timethereafter, funds, other financial assets and economic resources owned or controlled directly or indirectly by Charles Taylor, Jewell Howard Taylor and Charles Taylor Jr. and/or those other individuals designated by the Committee, including funds, other financial assets andeconomic resources held by entities owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by any of them or by any persons acting on their behalf or at their direction, as designated by the committee, shall freeze without delay all such funds, other financial assets or economic resources, and shall ensure that neither these nor any other funds...are made available, by their nationals or by any persons within their territory, directly or indirectly, to or for the benefit of such persons; Decides that the provisions of paragraph 1 above do not apply to funds, other financialassets and economic resources that: (a) have been determined by relevant State(s) to be necessary for basic expenses...after notification by the relevant State(s) to the Committee of the intention to authorize, where appropriate, access to such funds, other financial assets and economic resources and in the absence of a negative decision by the Committee within two working days of such notification; (b) have been determined by relevant State(s) to be necessary for extraordinary expenses,  provided that such determination has been notified by the relevant State(s) to theCommittee and has been approved by the Committee; orc) have been determined by relevant State(s) to be the subject of a judicial administrative,or arbitral lien or judgement, in which case other funds, other financial assets and economic resources may be used to satisfy that lien or judgement provided that the lienor judgement: was entered prior to the date of the present resolution; is not for the benefit of a person referred to in paragraph 1 above or an individual or entity identified by the Committee; and has been notified by the relevant State(s) to the Committee;’

3. Decides that all States may allow for the addition to accounts subject to the provisions ofparagraph 1 above of:(a) interest or other earnings due on those accounts; and(b) payments due under contracts, agreements or obligations that arose prior to the date onwhich those accounts became subject to the provisions of paragraph 1 above;(c) provided that any such interest, other earnings and payments continue to be subject tothose provisions;’

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