Liberia: Dr. Daniel Cassell, a Contender in 2023 Presidential Elections, is Dead

DELAWARE COUNTY, PHILADELPHIA – Dr. Daniel, a psychologist-turned politician who entered the rugged jungle of Liberian Politics as founder and leader of the People’s Liberation Party has died. He was fifty-six.

FrontPageAfrica has gathered from family sources that Dr. Cassell was found unresponsive in the early hours of Sunday evening at his home in Philadelphia.

Dr. Cassell founded Kwenyan Professional Health Services, a mental health/behavioral and substance abuse agency and worked as Behavioral Specialist Consultant in the Philadelphia and Bucks County areas in the United States. In 2008, he became licensed as a professional counselor in Pennsylvania and became a licensed clinical drugs and alcohol counselor in New Jersey in 2009. This enabled him to begin his career in private practice. After a year in private practice, his agency was approved by the New Jersey Division of Child Behavioral Health as an intensive in-home and community provider

In 2022, Dr. Cassell announced his intention to run for president of Liberia in the 2023 elections, forming the People Liberation Party to back his candidacy.

Dr. Cassell’s quest for the presidency took a rocky turn in September when indicted by a Grand Jury in the United States of America on allegations of insurance fraud among other counts.

A statement from the office of the Attorney General of New Jersey disclosed that the Acting Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor (OIFP) announced that a state grand jury had indicted Dr. Cassell on charges of first-degree money laundering, second-degree theft by deception, and multiple counts of conspiracy, insurance fraud, and other charges outlined.

Officials said Dr. Cassell used the mental health clinics to hide unreported income and failed to report “more than $11 million in additional New Jersey-earned income on NJ non-resident income tax returns” from 2016-2018. Bindu Cassell was an officer for the Kwenyan entities, Platkin said.

Two of Cassell’s employees submitted thousands of false claims to Medicaid for mental health services that were never performed or were billed incorrectly.

Days after the reports, Dr. Cassell declared that he was neither in prison nor undergoing a probe by federal authorities in the US as speculated in Liberia.

Dr. Cassell pontificated, “I am not a criminal,” but he was quick to clarify that his New Jersey based mental health, behavioral, and substance abuse agencies, Kwenyan Professional Health Services, LLC and Kwenyan and Associates, are currently confronted with a legal issue. He said the matter is being investigated. He furthered, “As an individual, I have not been charged with a crime, or sent to jail in this country.”

But Dr. Cassell maintained his innocence, telling a group of US-based journalists on Sunday, July 9, 2022, at a townhall gathering at the All-Nations Christian Church located in Clifton Heights, Delaware County, Pennsylvania: “As a business owner and a responsible leader, I take full responsibility for whatever that reportedly happened while I was away”. He told his audience, “The case is being litigated in court; and with God’s grace, I know justice will prevail and I will be exonerated. I believe in the US Justice System.” He maintained, “In this country, I know that an accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty in the court of law.”

Despite the charges, Dr. Cassell consistently maintained that the PLP would be a key contender in the 2023 general and presidential elections in Liberia. He said the Party as a grass root political institution, is fixated on rescuing Liberia from its current state of demise.

Dr. Cassell’s death has now left the PLP in a state of uncertainty amid mounting speculations that the party could be headed into a merger with another political party.