LISCR Funds Taylor's Deadly Arms Deal
Information gathered by this paper shows the company that was put together by former President Charles Taylor to control Liberia's Maritime money, aided and abetted him to pay for his killing machines that were allegedly used for the destabilization of the Mano River Basin.
The Liberia International Ship Corporate Registry (LISCR) has been accused of being one of the financiers of Taylor 's arm deal during his reign in Liberia . Taylor , now held in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity, used unscrupulous means to violate UN sanction on the importation of arms to Liberia . Sources say Taylor used the arms in prosecuting his wars in the Mano River Basin , which left massive destruction of lives and properties.
In recent years, the prime concern of the Liberian Government was not the technical quality of Liberia 's shipping registry but what happens to the money generated from it.
From 1949 to 1999, research indicates that the registry earned around U.S. $700 million for the Liberian government. During the 1990-1996 civil wars in Liberia and during the interim period following that war, revenue from the registry represented some 90 percent of the Liberian government's total income.
But according to information obtained by this paper, when President Charles Taylor came to power in Liberia in 1997, he sought to obtain control of the registry. During the civil war he had failed to raise funds for his war efforts from IRI Company that ran the registry at the time.
In December 1998, an agreement was signed by the Liberian government to set up LISCR, and a U.S. law firm was registered under the United States Foreign Agent Registration Act to act on behalf of Liberia .
The Liberian government appointed LISCR as its exclusive agent to manage the corporate and maritime registers with effect from January 1, 2000.
This contract is for ten years with a provision for renewal. LISCR is based in Vienna , Virginia , and it is at this location that ship safety, inspection, compliance, manning, and accident-and-incident investigation are managed. LISCR has a New York office, where Liberian ship registrations and ship mortgage recording usually take place.
According to our information, LISCR is meant to retain approximately 66 percent of the fee income of the corporate register to cover operating costs and profit while the remainder is paid to the Liberian government.
LISCR retains 20 percent of tonnage tax fees, while 60 percent of the total income generated by the registers is retained by LISCR, 5 percent is paid as dues to the International Maritime Organization, and the rest is paid to Liberian government.
The registry generates around U.S.$18 million a year for Liberia , which is distributed to the government in accordance with the agreement between LISCR and the Liberian government.
LISCR's operation is annually audited, until recently by Arthur Anderson. Collections are initially deposited into one of several registry bank accounts, according to information.
Diversion of Funds
Information says a U.N. panel found that this standard procedure was not always followed.
Bank transfer details for two LISCR transfers to SAN Air General Trading at Standard Chartered Bank, Sharjah , United Arab Emirates , for U.S.$525,000 on June 21, 2000, and U.S.$400,000 on July 7, 2000, were for arms and transportation in violation of U.N. sanctions.
SAN Air was found by the U.N panel to be the main company behind sanctions-busting to Liberia .
It is an agent for Centrafrican Airways, the main company of international sanctions-buster Victor Bout. Victor Bout is facing trial in a US Court for arm trafficking.
Information maintained that LISCR admitted to the U.N. panel that it had made four payments to non-government accounts in 2000.
According to our information, the disbursements followed written requests from the Liberian government's commissioner of maritime affairs. Benoni Urey was the Commissioner of maritime at the time.
An informed source quoting LISCR, said the company became increasingly uncomfortable about these requests, and, following a further request on August 17, 2000, it informed the commissioner of maritime affairs that they would no longer diverge from standard procedure.
Sanjivan Ruprah (Kenian born), is reported to have been involved in arms trade in Africa, Afghanistan and Eastern Europe and reportedly linked to Bin Laden, Al-Qaida
The information said Liberia 's Bureau of Maritime Affairs (BMA) then changed its strategy, and directed three payments valued at a total of U.S.$548,000 from their part of the maritime revenue directly to SAN Air via arms dealer Sanjivan Ruprah.
The U.N. panel obtained a letter signed by Liberian Commissioner of Maritime Affairs Benoni Urey authorizing these transfers and details of four wire transfers from Monrovia to SAN Air via Sanjivan Ruprah.
The onward transfer details of these funds by Ruprah, or an employee of Ruprah, Jacques Gakali, were also obtained by the panel. A further direct transfer of U.S.$149,980 was made from the BMA's Ecobank account to SAN Air on October 5, 2000, according to our information.
These authorized diversions also show up in the remittance figures of Liberia 's Ministry of Finance, for the months August through to October 2000. The dramatic decline in remittance for those three months was due to authorized diversions by the commissioner of maritime affairs to Sanjivan Ruprah for payment to SAN Air General Trading for arms and transportation, information maintained.
Accounting for the Maritime Revenue in Monrovia
According to official documents of the Bureau of Maritime Affairs, our source said, the Liberian government's portion of the funds collected directly by the LISCR program are deposited directly into a government account that is operated exclusively by the minister of finance and not the commissioner.
Then the BMA is supposed to be allocated 10 percent of these funds to support its operational budget, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should receive 6 percent, and the Ministry of Information 4 percent.
The U.N. panel investigations proved that both these claims were false. In fact, the UN Panel said funds were remitted directly to a tripartite account held at the Ecobank in Monrovia . The commissioner of maritime affairs and the minister of finance are signatories with a third determinational signatory controlled by the Executive Mansion – the Liberian presidency.
The U.N. panel found that the BMA did not feature in the payroll status of the Ministry of Finance (March 9, 2002), and that in the government's Bureau of the Budget's budget for July 1, 2001, to June 30, 2002, the BMA fell under the Government of Liberia Special Commitment – a budget line of the Executive Mansion.
Following a recommendation by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in October 2001 the Liberian authorities directed that government bank accounts be moved from commercial banks to the Central Bank of Liberia .
The Bureau of Maritime Affairs, however, still maintains its own three-signatory account.
This makes tracking what happens to the money once it reaches the BMA difficult – the more so, because Liberia 's Auditor General last audited the Bureau of Maritime Affairs only in 1988.
When the U.N. panel tried to examine the accounts of BMA in April 2002, it was not able to do so. The panel was informed that a generator had broken down and that it would be repaired only after the panel had left Liberia .
Liberia 's Ministry of Finance admitted that in 2001, due to increased defense expenditure, there had been significant diversion of maritime funds for extra-budgetary use by the Executive Mansion . The figures provided by the Ministry of Finance for 2001 provided much higher remittances than those registered by the Central Bank of Liberia .
This significant discrepancy is mainly due to high extra-budgetary demands on these funds by the Liberian presidency, according to information.
Our source: “In September 2000, following an IMF staff visit to review the January-June 2000 Staff Monitored Program (SMP), the IMF expressed concern about the shortfall in maritime revenue and wrote that the continued decline in maritime inflows is troublesome and should be reviewed closely so that remedial measures can be taken if necessary. In December 2001, IMF again noted after its Article 4 consultations that reported payments from the shipping registry to the government differed from collections at the Ministry of Finance by some U.S$2 million, reflecting deductions at source by the BMA or timing differences in the transfer of funds from offshore accounts”.
Maritime remittances recorded between September 2001 and February 2002 as received by the Ministry of Finance (U.S.$6,255,771) more or less matched what LISCR reported as having remitted (U.S.$5,781,885).
The main problem with the Liberian shipping and corporate registry is what happens to the money once it is transferred to an account controlled by the Liberian government.
The Bureau of Maritime Affairs and its Long History of Sanctions Busting
The BMA was officially granted autonomous status in June 1989 through a Liberian Act of Legislature. The commissioner, officially, is the only senior official appointed by the president of Liberia , although, in fact, the head of state also makes other appointments. For example, Agnes Taylor, a former wife of President Taylor, was appointed by him as Liberia 's permanent representative to the International Maritime Organization and as a Liberian deputy maritime commissioner in London .
Our source said the BMA was embroiled in a sanctions-busting scandal prior to the investigations of the U.N. panel of experts. On February 5, 1998, U.S. customs seized a Hummer armored vehicle with a value of U.S.$146,260, in Savannah , Georgia . The vehicle, which was fitted with a hardened point for attaching a weapon, was due to be exported to Liberia via Cote d'Ivoire without an export license in breach of U.S. law and in contravention of U.N. sanctions on Liberia.
An investigation in the U.S. revealed the involvement of a United Kingdom broker and that payments for the vehicle were made from the Permanent Mission of Liberia to the IMO's bank account.
British customs and excise investigations also found that Gerald Cooper, then Liberia 's permanent representative to the IMO in London and deputy commissioner of maritime affairs, was involved and had even traveled to Atlanta , Georgia , for discussions about the vehicle and the possibility of ordering three more vehicles with hardened points.
On February 12, 1999, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office asked the Liberian government to waive Cooper's diplomatic immunity so that he could be questioned about these transactions, but the Liberian government declined to do so, its London embassy stating that Cooper had acted in an “official capacity.”
On July 8, 1999, the British government declared Cooper persona non grata . Since his expulsion from the United Kingdom , Cooper has continued to be associated with LISCR, our source stated.
The latter did not investigate Cooper's past before hiring him, but acknowledged that they were “aware that he had to leave the United Kingdom under a cloud, but do not know exactly why.”
In addition to Gerald Cooper's efforts to break the arms embargo in 1998 and 1999, the U.N. panel found that Sanjivan Ruprah, who traveled on two Liberian passports as a deputy commissioner of maritime affairs, played an important role in violating the arms embargo in 2000 and 2001.
Ruprah used two different diplomatic passports issued to him by the Liberian government, one in his correct name and one under the false name Samir Nasr. The U.N. panel also found a document showing that Ruprah had signed letters as deputy commissioner, on BMA letterhead.
The U.N. panel also documented in detail how Commissioner of Maritime Affairs Benoni Urey assisted Ruprah's sanctions-busting efforts, notably by arranging payment for them from the BMA's funds and providing logistical support. Urey, however, has continued to deny to the U.N. panel that he was involved in any wrongdoing.
The U.N. panel concluded in its October 2001 report that Liberia's commissioner of maritime affairs and the BMA were “little more than a cash extraction operation and cover from which to fund and organize off-budget expenditures, including for sanctions-busting, and that the funds would need to be protected from Bureau misuse.”
When the Public Relations Officer of LISCR, T-Max Jlateh was contacted on the issue, he replied, “The manager of LISCR is out of the country and do not know his number in the States.
Mr. Urey for his part has always denied busting any UN sanction. Read more in our next edition.
