The Joint Security in Sinoe County has apprehended a Liberian businesswoman with over 3 million Liberian dollars.
The Joint Security arrested Annie Stanton, a fifty year-old Business Woman from Nimba County, at 12 noon on October 13, 2018 with the sum of 3, 042,130 Liberian dollars at the Plank-Site Checkpoint on the outskirts of Greenville City.
According to a release from the police head office in Greenville, the lady put the money in a carton among assorted goods like tobacco, washing soap, onions and vita cubes, among others, and sealed it up.
Fifty-year old Annie Stanton alleged that the money arrested in her possession was not illegally obtained but her business money.
“My husband and I are based in the bush, especially in the gold mine area in Government Camp, and I went to town to sell gold. It was on my way back that the police arrested me at the checkpoint near Greenville,” she told the police.
In an exclusive interview with the Liberia News Agency (LINA) in Greenville, the 50-year old said “for the past ten years now my husband and I have been in gold business and we are fully registered with the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy (MoLME) with genuine
license. We are permitted by the government to do this business,” she explained.
“In fact, the money arrested from me was the amount I withdrew from our account at the International Bank (IB Bank) branch in Red-light, Monrovia two days ago,” Annie told LINA.
“The money arrested is in three different bills: five hundred dollar, hundred dollar and fifty dollar bank notes,” she explained.
In response to concerns raised by the public and officials, fifty-year old Annie promised to submit all documents to justify her ownership of the money before Monday, October 15, 2018.
“I am sorry that my husband is not here, but I have sent for him to come with all our official mining documents from the Lands and Mines ministry,” she said
Annie then assured that by Monday morning, her husband would be available with their documents and would submit them to the joint security to establish their ownership of the money seized from her.
For their part, the police indicated that “whether the arrested money is owned by the lady or not, proper investigation will be carried out to establish the actual ownership. They said at the end of their investigation, the result would show what next step to take.
Commenting on the issue, Sinoe County Attorney Cllr. J. Adolphus Karnuah indicated that all legal documents from the Lands, Mines and Energy Ministry must be provided with the appropriate signatures.
He said the procedure is necessary to prove or disprove what the businesswoman claims to be the case.
“Once she provides her documents from the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy as well as the mining permit, then there is no need to hold unto the money,” he said.
Concerned citizens in the county who spoke to LINA also added their voices for the need for “proper investigation to be carried out with the examination of the legal documents to prove the ownership of the huge money claimed by the lady.
LINA
Comments are closed.