Claim: "Samuel Tweah and others admitted they took the money."
Verdict: Mostly true. The claim that Tweah and his co-defendants admitted in court to taking the money is accurate. Both court records and Liberia’s Solicitor General confirm that the defendants acknowledged authorizing the transfers. However, the original Facebook post framed this as an outright confession of criminality. That framing is misleading.
The defendants are not disputing that the money moved—they are arguing it moved legally, under the authority of the National Security Council, and in pursuit of national security interests. The question of whether those transfers constitute a crime remains before the court. The trial is ongoing.
The defendants are not disputing that the money moved—they are arguing it moved legally, under the authority of the National Security Council, and in pursuit of national security interests. The question of whether those transfers constitute a crime remains before the court. The trial is ongoing.
Full Text: Samuel D. Tweah Jr. served as Minister of Finance and Development Planning under former President George Weah. Alongside him, four other senior officials from the Weah administration now face criminal prosecution: Cllr. Nyenati Tuan (former Acting Minister of Justice), Stanley S. Ford (former Director of the Financial Intelligence Agency), D. Moses P. Cooper (former FIA Comptroller), and Jefferson Karmoh (former National Security Advisor).
The five are being tried on charges of economic sabotage, theft of property, money laundering, criminal conspiracy, and criminal facilitation.
Verification: What the money trail shows: Prosecutors allege that between September 8 and 21, 2023, Tweah directed the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) to transfer L$1,055,152,540 — approximately US$5.6 million at the time—into the operational accounts of the Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA). A day later, on September 22, 2023, a separate US$500,000 was moved into the FIA’s U.S. dollar operational account.
Court records show that on the same day the US$500,000 was deposited, D. Moses P. Cooper—then Acting Financial Comptroller of the FIA — withdrew the entire sum. The prosecution maintains that none of the transfers were properly requested or authorized, and that no documentary evidence from the National Security Council, the National Joint Security apparatus, or the FIA supported the withdrawals.
The Immunity Battle: An arrest warrant was issued in mid-2024. Some co-defendants were detained after failing to meet bail conditions. Tweah, who was abroad at the time, returned to Liberia in September 2024 and surrendered to authorities. He was granted bail of US$8 million and has remained free while the case proceeded.
Tweah and his co-defendants challenged the lower court’s jurisdiction, arguing that as members of the National Security Council—chaired by the President—they were shielded from prosecution. They leaned on Sections 3(f) and 11(d) of the National Security Reform and Intelligence (NSRI) Act of 2011, which permits NSC funds to be spent “without regard to the provision of laws relating to expenditure of government funds if essential for vital National Security Interest.”
The defense also cited Article 61 of the 1986 Constitution, which grants immunity to a sitting president, arguing that because their actions were carried out under presidential direction, prosecuting them would indirectly violate that immunity. They filed a motion before the Supreme Court to halt proceedings, also relying on the act creating the National Security Council.
On December 18, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled against the immunity argument, clarifying that presidential immunity applies strictly to a sitting president and does not extend to appointed officials or NSC members. This gave Criminal Court C the green light to resume the trial.
What Tweah and the others actually said in court:
Tweah and his co-defendants have not denied authorizing the transfers. What they contest is whether those transfers were criminal. In court, they admitted to authorizing and effecting the movement of the funds but maintained that their actions were lawful and executed in pursuit of vital national security interests.
This admission was confirmed in a story titled “Government’s Anti-Corruption Battle Heats Up,” published by the Liberian Daily Observer on February 23.
In a separate video interview, Liberia’s Solicitor General Augustine Fayiah confirmed the court admission while speaking with judicial reporter Melvin Jackson. Fayiah stated that the defendants had acknowledged taking the money in question and described the case as potentially one of the shortest economic sabotage trials in Liberia’s history, given that the central factual dispute had effectively been resolved.
Atty. Quincy Dahn says when one confesses to the act, otherwise, they would plea not guilty, which shifts the burden to the State to bring evidence against the person.
Conclusion: The viral post by James Goodday Flomo captured something real but stripped it of critical legal nuance. Yes, Tweah and the other defendants have admitted to authorizing the transfer of approximately US$5.6 million from the Financial Intelligence Agency’s accounts. That admission is on the record. But admitting to authorizing a transaction is not the same as pleading guilty to a crime. Their position in court has consistently been that the transfers were lawful acts of national security governance, not theft.
What the Supreme Court’s December 2025 ruling made clear is that those arguments will not shield the accused from standing trial. The immunity defense has been rejected. The case now proceeds on its merits before Criminal Court C, and it will be up to the court—not social media posts—to determine whether what happened in September 2023 was a legitimate national security operation or economic sabotage.
