Monrovia – Mr. Cassell Anthony Kuoh, the former Vice President for Operations of the Liberia Football Association (LFA), has been sentenced in a North Carolina federal court to more than seven years in prison for an investment fraud scheme that bilked victims out of more than US$9.5 million.
Report by lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Department of Justice says Kuoh was sentenced on Thursday in federal court in Charlotte.
Mr. Kuoh was also ordered to pay $16.2 million in restitution and is subject to deportation after completing his sentence.
Records show that from 2012 to 2016, Kuoh devised a scheme involving the purchase, shipment and export of gold and rough diamonds from Liberia.
Prosecutors say Kuoh used the investors’ money to fund his personal lifestyle.
In March, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. A co-defendant is also awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to wire fraud conspiracy.
In August 2014 and August 2015, Kuoh, according to the complaint, first published by FrontPageAfrica, tricked and convinced D.S. to wire transfer approximately US$3,687,030 via bank wire transfers to McDan Shipping Company Limited.
According to the Affidavit of Complaint, in July 2014 Cassell Kuoh, a.k.a Tim Barrol, McDan Shipping Company Ltd. and others known to the United States had been engaged in an elaborate scheme to defraud individuals of millions of dollars by falsely representing that they possessed large quantities of gold and diamonds in Liberia.
The syndicate made their victims to believe that they wanted to ship the gold and diamonds to United States for refinement and sale.
Kouh and his associates, according to the complaint, held themselves out to be various types of middlemen who had access to large quantities of gold and diamonds in Liberia.
On or about June 27, 2013, according to the complaint, a victim-investor only identified as D.S. entered into a written contract to purchase 500 kilograms of gold bars and a second contract to purchase 223 rough diamonds (approximately 7, 123 carats) from one William Jackson to be identified in Monrovia. D.S. met Jackson via the business oriented social networking social networking service LinkedIn.
The complaint disclosed that that initially Jackson contacted D.S. and stated that he represented a village in Liberia that wanted to export its gold and diamonds to the United States.
Accordingly, D.S. recruited partners in the United States for the purpose of investing in the shipment of Liberian gold and diamonds.
“These investors sent D.S. money which he eventually sent to the conspirators for, what he believed to be, the shipment of gold and diamonds. Per an agreement with William Jackson, the shipment of gold and diamonds was to be managed by a ‘Tim Barrol’ (Kuoh) of McDan Shipping Company, Ltd., a shipping company located in Liberia,” the complaint stated.
The complaint further indicated that Kuoh was known to D.S. as Tim Barrol.
“Photographs of Cassell Kuoh’s U.S. border crossing and U.S. visa confirmed him as the individual representing himself as Tim Barrol of McDan Shipping Company.
As a primary component of the fraud scheme, Kuoh required several payments be made for certificate signatures and fees related to obtaining diamonds which would allow for the legal exportation and shipment of gold and diamonds from Liberia to the United States.
Search warrants on email accounts revealed that Kuoh, and others working only identified as E.T., C.K., and W.M., appeared to have created and/or manipulated numerous documents which allowed them to request payments for certificate endorsement on the fraudulent shipment.
In August 2014 and August 2015, Kuoh, according to the complaint, tricked and convinced D.S. to wire transfer approximately US$3,687,030 via bank wire transfers to McDan Shipping Company Limited, one C.K. (Kuoh’s former wife), Phoenix Mining and Investment Group (owned by Kuoh), W.M., E.T. (Kuoh’s associates) and others for shipping related costs including fees and other shipping related costs including storage fees, documents, certificates, etc. related to the legal exportation of gold and diamonds from Liberia to the United States.
According to the complaint, as part of the deal to convince D.S. that the deal was legitimate and the gold was real, in September 2014, Kuoh entered into the U.S. with approximately one kilogram of which, as D.S. arranged, he delivered to the refinery in Dallas, TX, which bought the gold and wired approximately US$37,761 to D.S.