Charles Taylor had $5Bn in Transactions between US banks

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Charles Taylor had $5Bn in Transactions between US banks

Roland Bankole Marke

Monday, May 12, 2008

Expelled Liberian president and “Lord of war” Charles Gbankay Taylor had destabilized the West African region, during his reign of terror that was terminated abruptly in 2003. Taylor is currently undergoing trial at the United Nations backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, for backing rebels in Sierra Leone, and allegedly committing crimes against humanity. He had about $ 5 billion worth of transactions between two US bank accounts during his presidency. Mr. Stephen Rapp his chief prosecutor told the BBC.

But it is not the first time that Taylor has been meddling with and handling enormous financial transactions in West Africa. In 1985, Taylor escaped from his jail cell in Massachusetts prison, where he was awaiting extradition for having swindled $900,000 from the cash-strapped Liberian people and government. Taylor has denied trading weapons for diamonds, and vehemently challenging the international community to track down and seize any money maintained in any bank account in his name. If any money is discovered, he promised to “turn them over to the Liberian people.” His trial was transferred from the UN backed Special Court in Freetown, Sierra Leone to The Hague, at the request of the government of Sierra Leone, because of potential security concerns in the region especially in Liberia.

News of Taylor's arrival in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital quickly spread like wild fire during harmattan, the dry and dusty wind that blows out of the Sahara along the northwest coast of Africa. Taylor’s arrival in Sierra Leone created serious tension and panic that left many people nervous. Some believed they were reliving the nightmare of the already concluded 11-year-long gruesome civil war, all over again that officially ended in 2002. It left tens of thousands of people dead or maimed, and thousands languishing as refugees in camps in neighboring countries, or as refugees abroad. Taylor loyalists and cronies are still armed and living at large. The Special Court had to transfer him to The Hague to ease mounting regional tension. War victims felt like their physical scars and emotional trauma were opening up all over again. Mutilated amputees were chanting and rejoicing like ecstasy, hearing that the villain who helped to ruin their lives has been taken abroad, thousands of miles away from their view.

United Nations Secretary General Ban KI-moon, proudly announced that the UN has made "significant progress" in its mission in Sierra Leone that’s focused on supporting the government to consolidate peace and stability, strengthen security, promote human rights, the rule of law and help the West African country prepare for its upcoming local government elections. In a recent report, he warned those overly optimistic that despite the significant incremental progress the UN has bagged so far, Sierra Leone "continues to experience political tension along ethnic and regional lines."

James Truslow Adams’ diction resonates in this context: “There are obviously two educations, one, should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.”

Sierra Leoneans and Liberians are asking: how did Taylor’s transactions escape the rigid scrutiny of the super powers? Which US banks would have held $5 billion in transactions of Taylor’s looted money - depriving Africa’s ailing economies of much needed resources, a Sierra Leonean in the Diaspora said. This enormous amount of bank transactions almost equates the economies of Liberia and Sierra Leone combined: which is $ 6.38 billion according to the CIA World Fact Book, 2007 estimates for both countries. Nationals from these two countries expect the wheels of justice would take its course and finally dig up the whole truth. But, the anemic, donor driven economies of both Liberia and Sierra Leone continue to be ravaged by gigantic challenges. They are also weighed down by the turbulent effects of galloping prices, food shortages, and skyrocketing oil price, resulting in a runaway inflation. Amputees do not stand a fighting chance to be salvaged in the race for survival in this cut-throat environment.

"We've certainly found evidence of hundreds of millions of dollars taken by Charles Taylor illegally in various banks at different times," chief prosecutor Stephen Rapp told the BBC's Focus on Africa program, recently. We have evidence of two accounts that were maintained in his name in the United States, during his presidency," and that they had had almost $5bn at one time, he said. Rapp disclosed that about $ 375 million had been debited from one account. He’s working with friendly nations to carefully track down the funds. UN freeze will eventually take effect on Taylor’s assets, he told BBC.

Rapp is optimist that the money recovered from Taylor’s assets would be shared among the victims of Sierra Leone’s infamous civil war and the people of Liberia, provided Taylor is found guilty. Amputees like Mamsu, Tamba and thousands of other victims, including children are hoping and praying to put this bleak chapter weighing on their lives behind them. Hopefully, any amount of compensation they might receive will help facilitate their rehabilitation. In SL, unemployment is over 60% among youths, and job training programs are inadequate, and desperately need visionary planning as deep pocket funding.

UN donors financed Taylor’s legal defense cost, because he complained that he had no money to fund his defense. But the current custodians of Taylor’s enormous wealth remain everyone’s puzzle. The international community is aware that this is not the first time African leaders have looted money from their people, to stock pile the money in banks abroad. Late Nigerian military General Sani Abacha, had helped to fight the rebels in Sierra Leone, by supplying military hardware and soldiers. A Street in Sierra Leone is named after Abacha, who showed commitment to end Africa’s most vicious, deadly war.

“According to the Africa Policy Information Center, located in Washington, DC a publication on June 10, 2000, and part of Dr. Mobolaji Aluko’s testimony before the United States Congressional hearing: it was estimated that Nigeria’s external debt was approximately $98.8 billion. Out of this figure, Abacha was estimated to have looted $5 billion from Nigerian treasury. Abacha's loot amounts to less than 5 percent of overall funds looted out of Nigeria.”

While Nigerians at the lower economic strata are eternally drowning in the dead sea of abject poverty and destitution: in a densely populated country with massive oil wealth. Increasingly, armed militant groups continue to interrupt crude oil production in Nigeria using terror tactics. Their rationale is to disrupt oil supply, resulting in a corresponding increase in the price of crude oil globally. The world has a big stake in the outcome of Taylor’s trial. But how long would it take for justice to be served, to recover, seize and share Taylor’s wealth among war victims of the Sierra Leone civil war, and the struggling people of Liberia? The outcome of this trial would set a precedent for all African leaders and would help to deter them from corrupt practices. As some might be thinking of plundering their nation’s resources or wealth to convert to their own personal wealth. To inoculate the mindset of greed and the outcome of Taylor’s trial is a recipe that would help move the ailing continent to take leap-frog steps forward.

Roland Bankole Marke is a Sierra Leonean writer, who writes from Florida, USA.

Visit his website: www.Rolandmarke.com