The United States has sanctioned senior Liberian government officials Nathaniel McGill, Sayma Syrenius Cephus, and Bill Twehway for their involvement in ongoing public corruption in Liberia, the US Treasury Department announced on Monday. McGill is Liberia’s minister of state for presidential affairs and chief of staff to President George Weah; Cephus is the current solicitor general and chief prosecutor of Liberia; and Twehway is the current managing director of the National Port Authority (NPA). Following the actions by the US, all property and interests in property of the three individuals that are in the US or in the possession or control of US persons must be blocked and reported to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). In addition, persons who engage in certain transactions with the designed individuals risk also being exposed to sanctions or subject to enforcement action, the Treasury said. All three government officials are being designated for being a foreign person who is a current government official who has engaged in corruption, the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain and corruption related to the extraction of natural resources.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA