Monrovia – International Bank Liberia Limited (IBLL) has clarified circumstances surrounding its delay in furnishing Criminal Court “C” with subpoenaed documents in the ongoing Sable Mining bribery trial.
Report by Lennart Dodoo – [email protected]
“The Bank wants to make it known that, while it regrets the late submission of the referenced two checks, the reason is attributed to an inadvertent human error.”
The bank in a press statement said it never refused to honor or comply with the subpoenas from the Court which requested the statement of account of Sherman & Sherman.
However, the bank acknowledged with regrets the delay in producing all the documents.
“The Bank wants to make it known that, while it regrets the late submission of the referenced two checks, the reason is attributed to an inadvertent human error.”
Contrary to its testimony in court that the CD ROM which contained scanned checks were damaged, the bank said the CD Rom is in its possession, but cannot be accessed on the Bank’s current software, which has recently been updated.
“The Bank is prepared to turn over the CD Rom to the Court for expert review,” the release assured.
In response to reports that the last two checks submitted on April 4, 2017, were tampered with, the bank insisted that the checks were submitted to the Court in their original form, as requested.
“The Bank will fully cooperate in a forensic examination to establish any alterations of either check as well as the Bank’s system, and invites the Courts to conduct an expert assessment.”
“When the request for the remaining two checks was received on March 23, 2017, at 6:19 pm, the CEO of the Bank was away from Liberia seeking medical attention.:
“It was therefore incorrectly assumed by a member of the Bank staff that the two remaining checks were missing, when they were in fact, secured in the CEO vault along with the remaining checks of Sherman & Sherman Inc., for the period May to December 2010.”
“Immediately upon the CEO return to the office on Monday, April 3, 2017, he accessed his safe and the remaining checks were turned over to the Court on the following Tuesday morning, April 4, 2017.”
The Subpoena Timeline
According to the bank, on May 19, 2016, it received a subpoena from Criminal Court “A’’, ordering it to produce the bank statements of Sherman & Sherman, Inc., and Cllr. H. Varney G. Sherman on May 23, 2016, at 12 pm.
Subsequently, it received a stay order from Criminal Court “A’’ ordering all banks within the Republic of Liberia, including IBLL, to stay the production of all bank statements in respect of the accounts of Cllr. H. Varney G. Sherman, Sherman & Sherman, Inc., and other co-defendants in the Sable Mining case, until otherwise advised.
On June 9, 2016, the IBLL received a subpoena from Criminal Court “C’’, ordering it to produce the bank statements of Sherman & Sherman, Inc., and Cllr. H. Varney G. Sherman on June 13, 2016, at 10 am.
On June 10, 2016, the Bank received a stay order from Criminal Court “C’’ ordering all banks within the Republic of Liberia, including IBLL, to stay the production of all bank statements in respect of the accounts of Cllr. H. Varney G. Sherman, Sherman & Sherman, Inc., and other co-defendants in the Sable Mining case, until otherwise advised.
On December 22, 2016, the Bank received another communication from Criminal Court “A’’ lifting the stay order and ordering the Bank to produce the statements of Cllr. Sherman and Sherman & Sherman, Inc within 72 hours. The Bank responded immediately and provided the Court the referenced bank statements, without any delay.
Following the presentation of the bank statements, the Bank received another subpoena from Criminal Court “C’’ ordering it to produce 26 checks drawn on the accounts of Cllr. Sherman and Sherman & Sherman, Inc. Upon receipt of this order, the Bank began a diligent search of its record facilities at three different locations.
During the search for the 26 checks, it was established that all checks for the months January through April 2010, were signed for and received by the designated Sherman & Sherman, Inc., personnel, including seven of the checks requested by the Court.
These checks were, therefore, were no longer in the Bank’s possession.
The Court was accordingly informed. An additional 3 checks mentioned in the subpoena were, in fact, inward remittance payments.
Fourteen checks were located at the Bank’s Head Office and immediately submitted to the Court; thus, leaving outstanding only two of the 26 checks requested.