By Grace Q. Bryant
The, Criminal Court ‘C’ at the Temple of Justice has summoned the Guaranty Trust Bank (GT Bank) Liberia Limited today on crimes of Theft of Property and Criminal Conspiracy.
Those to appear before the 1st Judicial Circuit Court in Monrovia are the Managing Director, Deputies, Operations Manager, Executive Director, Controller and other Corporate Officers to be identified.
The court’s action is stemmed from an indictment by the Grand Jury in favor of the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Kailondo Petroleum, Incorporated (KP), private prosecutor, George B. Kailondo.
According to the indictment from the Grand Jury for Monsterrado County, the Managing Director Prince Saye along other staffs of the Guaranty Trust Bank Liberia allegedly stole US$930,500 from the Kailondo Petroleum Inc and private prosecutor, Kailondo.
The indictment also said that between September 9, 2014 up to and including December 15, 2016, the Bank knowingly, purposely, criminally and intentionally defrauded, deprived and stole monies in the amount of US$930,500 from prosecutor Kailondo’s checking accounts.
According to the indictment, the defendants conspired, facilitated and committed the crimes of Theft; a flagrant violation of LCLR Title 26, Section 15.51 (a) and 4LCLR Title 26, Section 2.2, (a) and (b) and 4LCLR Title 26, Section 15.6 (a)(b)(e)(g) and 4LCLR Title 26, Section 15.54 of the Statutory Law of the Republic of Liberia.
The Grand Jury’s indictment informed the court that sometime ago in the City of Monrovia, the private prosecutor Kailondo for the purpose of trust and confidence in the defendants’ entity, the GT Bank Liberia Limited, opened checking accounts at said Bank with accounts Numbers 01126050020001000 and 0113150002000000; both containing USD and LD transactions.
The indictment explained that the defendants, GTBANK Liberia, having prior knowledge of these accounts and knowing that the private prosecutor Kailondo is the only signatory regarding transactions to include, deposit and withdrawals, the Bank criminally opened an escrow account bearing number 01126050025020000, an account number close to Kailondo’s accounts with the sole intent of committing the crime.
The indictment revealed that during the year interval the GT Bank with criminal mind and intent, conspired, connived, collided and in one accord, designed and developed a scheme and or criminal syndicate, debited the private prosecutor’s Account and made authorizations and deceptive withdrawals of US$930,500.
The indictment further averred that on December 12, 2014, the defendants also debited from private prosecutor’s USD Account #001126050020001000 the amount of US$50,000 and on April 12, 2015, the defendants again debited from private prosecutor with Number 01126050025020000, same being an escrow account.
The defendants, the indictment claims, transferred US$150,000 without the knowledge and consent of the private prosecutor and in addition to the Bank’s scheme and or syndicate, on April 23, 2015, similar debited was again carried out from the private prosecutor Kailondo’s account bearing account number 01126050025020000 and an amount of US$ 3,469,352.26 with a narration A/C Tfr to settle Matures LC IFO Kailondo Petroleum but instead presented a swift transfer.
The GTBANK Liberia Limited Managing Director, Deputies, Operations Manager, Executive Director and Controller and other Corporate Officers to be identified criminally and intentionally made the said withdrawal of US$168,352.26.
The Bank reflected that only US$3.3 million was transferred as the actual cost of the LC which led to the withdrawal of US$168,352.26; interestingly, on January 8, 2016 up to March 28, 2016, GT Bank deducted US$50,000 on what they described as reverse due to RTN CHK-Ecobank, without the private prosecutor’s knowledge.
The Bank is also accused of entering the private prosecutor’s account and debited a transaction of US$40,000 exercising authorized controlled over Kailondo money and deprive him of the gainful use of his property.