Upon his return to the country after facing two court arrest orders, the former Finance and Development Planning Minister has submitted to legal proceedings, securing a $8 million criminal appearance bond.
Under Liberia’s legal jurisdiction, allegations of crimes levied against former Finance Minister Samuel Tweah are billable offenses.
But, what has left many Liberians pondering is the availability of such a huge criminal appearance bond.
There have been reports that no government official of the George Weah Administration and President Joseph Boakai whose salaries and benefits, when summed for 6 years, are equivalent to such an amount of money.
However, some companies buy and sell guarantees that can be equivalent to the US$ 8M criminal appearance bond as secured by to the defendant.
It was earlier reported that the Former Liberian Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah returned to Liberia early at 1:00 am today, Wednesday, September 25.
CDC’s Samuel Tweah, represented by his legal team was able to meet up with the US$8 million criminal appearance bond after hours of first appearance at the court.
According to reports, the Former Minister arrived in the country on an Air Peace flight, escorted home by family members and friends.
This institution is unable to reliably verify the entity through which the indicted former Finance Minister secured the US$8 million criminal appearance bond.
Upon voluntarily surrendering to the justice system, he avoided being arrested by the police, despite having two court writs of arrest against him.
Recently, the resident circuit judge of Criminal Court “C”, His Honor A. Blamo Dixon, ordered the arrest of former senior government officials allegedly involved in a US$6.2 Million corruption and money laundering case.
The former Minister of Finance and Development Planing, Samuel Tweah, who was a fugitive delayed in honoring the Court’s arrest order since July 30, 2024 when the first arrest order was released.
Samuel Tweah is not alone, as the defendants In this high-profile case also include former Minister of Finance and Development Planning; Cllr. Nyenati Tuan, former Acting Minister of Justice and Solicitor General; Stanley S. Ford, former Director General of the Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA); D. Moses P. Cooper, former Comptroller of the FIA; and Jefferson Karmoh, former National Security Advisor.
Tweah, Tuan, Ford, Cooper, and Karmoh are facing charges of economic sabotage, money laundering, fraud, criminal conspiracy, criminal facilitation, misuse of public money, and theft among others.
The last writ of arrest dated September 6, 2024 and signed by Clerk of Court Knowles W. Shain, stated, “You are hereby commanded to arrest the living bodies of Samuel D. Tweah, Cllr. Nyenati Tuan, Stanley S. Ford, D. Moses P. Cooper, and Jefferson Karmoh, Defendants, named in the above-entitled cause of action, changed with the commission of the above-mentioned crimes based upon the indictment prepared against them by the Grand Jury duly selected, empaneled, and sworn.”
