The U.S Government under President Joe Biden’s fight against corruption and impunity has officially become evident in Liberia.
In December 2020, Senator Varney Sherman was sanctioned by the United States under the Global Magnitsky Act for bribery.
Senator Prince Johnson was also sanctioned for acts of corruption in December of the last year 2021 under the same act.
Amid speculations that a list of people to be sanctioned is coming up, An American Media outlet (The National Interest) in its April 19, 2022, a publication has revealed that ALP Political Leader Benoni Urey is among those targeted.
“Other individuals directly cited by the Truth and Reconciliation Report, including Benoni Urey, who is currently the leader of a minor political party, are the likely next targets. Urey was listed as a Specially Designated National (SDN) by the Treasury until 2015 for his involvement in money laundering and illegal arms trading. In 2009, a leaked cable penned by then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice noted, “Benoni Urey continues to pose an ongoing threat to the peace and stability in Liberia and the sub-region. Urey was the Commissioner of Maritime Affairs for former Liberian President Charles Taylor and was known to play a key role in arms procurement.” In 2016, reports also circulated that Urey was denied a U.S. visa in an embarrassing incident at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia. Benoni Urey has long played a complex game in his effort to evade accountability for his wartime actions. He spearheaded dubious legal charges against his political opponents in an effort to maneuver himself back into a position of power and disingenuously declared his support for a Liberian war crimes court. Last year, Newsweek wrote that Urey is simply hopping “from one bandwagon to the next, hoping it will never reach a real court of international law.”
