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Legalbrief   |   your legal news hub Friday 29 March 2024

Missing $97m found – all is forgiven

Liberia's Central Bank executive governor last week revealed that despite earlier government reports that $97m in newly-printed bills went missing, the money has been accounted for. Nathaniel Patray told reporters in Monrovia that the currency which is printed in Sweden had been delivered into bank vaults and recorded as arriving between 2016 and 2018. A report on the News24 site notes that he did not take questions and it was not clear why he had not spoken out sooner. Officials reported the money missing in mid-September. The government had quickly launched an investigation and imposed travel restrictions on 35 people including former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's son, a deputy at the bank. A TimesLIVE report notes that a Liberian court also issued arrest warrants for more than 30 former bank officials in connection with the scandal. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, Information Minister Lenn Nagbe was quoted as saying the government would ‘leave no stone unturned’ to find the cash as protesters in Monrovia blamed the authorities for ‘mass looting’.