The former Deputy Information Minister for Public Affairs, Eugene Fahngon, says Liberty Party’s former Chairperson, Benjamin Sanvee, must be made to return US$45,000 his company allegedly received as business loan under the Private Sector Development Initiatives (PSDI) Project.
Sanvee’s name surfaced in a report of the Internal Audit Unit (IAU) at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning on the operational audit of the PSDI as one of several business entities that allegedly received business loans amounting to US$545,700.
The audit findings revealed that the businesses that received the loans could not be located and the Sanvee Holdings Incorporated was among said businesses.
After being sacked recently, many pundits of the opposition bloc surmised that the former Deputy Minister would have left the party but Fahngon, a staunch member of the Weah-led Pro-poor regime, cautioned Sanvee to return the cash as the two men crossed path on a Spoon TV live show on Monday, June 28, 2021.
Before then on the show, Sanvee accused Fahngon of spreading ‘malicious lies’ against him and other people particularly on allegation that he (Sanvee) stole US$45, 000 from the Liberian people.
Fahngon, however, clarified that his accusation against Sanvee was not hearsay but something which was admitted by Sanvee himself and claimed that Sanvee was part of a scam under which the Liberian people’s monies were given to friends and families.
“The money you took, according to you, and the papers you filled in which turned out not to be the best was for the purpose of a small business that was supposed to, I believe, buy up other smaller businesses and trade them,” said Fahngon.
He said after Sanvee took the money under such circumstances, according to the report, his was never located, the address could not be found.
Howbeit, he apologized to Liberian and they accepted it but Sanvee allegedly promised to start the payment of the money. Fahngon added; “Once you are sitting in America and we cannot get our money from you, we cannot say it is bad debt.”
He told Sanvee boldly that people are saying that Sanvee has stolen their money, but if he does not want people to say he stole their money, then it is only fair that he gives back their money.
But Sanvee, however, challenged Fahngon to prove that he admitted to the Liberian people that he stole their money.
The PSDI is a project which was established in 2014 at the MFDP to provide loans to Liberian-owned Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs) and the loan was intended to financially strengthen Liberian businesses.
According to the reported auditor’s note, they claimed to have received GE Fund account statements, loan agreements and customers’ files verification to authenticate the existence of the businesses, including all other borrowers who received the loans from PSDI.
It stated that based on the address on book, they did not find or see the 12 businesses at any of the locations stipulated and tried to contact them using telephone numbers obtained from the borrowers’ files, but their phones were permanently switched off.
However, according to Fahngon, the auditors cited that on May 31, 2015, while concluding their draft report, they made further contacts and were able to reach Benjamin Sanvee, the Chief Executive Officer of Sanvee Holdings Incorporated.
“Auditors noted that they were allegedly informed by Sanvee that the reason they did not see the business at the Bong Mines Bridge as noted on the business file was because the business had been transferred to Sinkor, 24th Street,” Fahngon told the show.