Days after detained Liberian businessman Sheik Bassirou Kante revealed that he was given a diplomatic passport on the orders of Vice president Jewel Howard Taylor, George George Manneh Weah, has directed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dee-Maxwell Kemayah, to immediately investigate circumstances leading to the issuance of Liberia’s Diplomatic passport to Mr. Kante.
In his directive, the President ordered that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately stop the issuance of diplomatic passports to anyone unless otherwise authorized by him.
The Liberian Chief Executive also directed Minister Kemeyah to submit a full report detailing a review of how Liberian diplomatic passports are issued.
The report by the Foreign Minister is to be submitted within one week of the date of the President’s directive, May 10, 2022.
Sheik Bassirou Kante was arrested on April 20, 2022 for wire transfer fraud amounting to US$7million dollars and has since file in a bail but the U.S. Court.
In a written Order recently U.S. Judge Timothy J. Sullivan found that the weight of the evidence against the Bassirou was strong and that he was subject to a lengthy period of incarceration if convicted.
He is also subject to removal from the United States through deportation after serving his full term if convicted.
The Judge at the same time emphasized that Bassirou, alias Royal Gold, possessed multiple passports from various countries as well as fraudulent identification documents.
He had unexplained assets and sources of large amounts of money and had close ties to government governments – particularly, the government of Liberia.
Tie with Liberia vice president
Kante who was instrumental in bringing two famous artists; Peter and Paul for Liberia’s bicential celebration is said to have bank accounts with 10 commercial banks in Liberia with huge sum of money.
The office of the vice president of Liberia in a release on Monday said the vice president does not have any close link to Mr. Kante and his business transactions.
VP Taylor office said the vice president has no idea on how Mr. Kante got the diplomatic passport.
A Liberian diplomatic passport is only granted to
His access in Liberia has since been frozen after the country’s Financial Intelligent Unit (FIU) discovered his unscrupulous business activities.
