Govt. drops charges against GT-Bank indictee

Prosecutors have communicated with the Criminal Court “C” handling a criminal trial at the Temple of Justice in Monrovia against three indicted Guaranty Trust Bank Liberia (Limited) employees, entering a nolle prosequi [ abandoning charges] in favor of defendant Emmanuel Togba.

Defendant Togba was indicted along with Montmonrancy Yancy and Stanley Yorsee for alleged misapplication of US$126,219 of Total Liberia’s deposits at GT-Bank Liberia under multiple charges, including theft of property, criminal conspiracy and criminal facilitation.

Prosecution says it has resolved to have defendant Togba “ serve as a state witness in the case,” informing the court that it however reserves its statutory rights as contained in Section 18.3 of the Criminal Statute.

Prosecution’s third witness Tello Nicholas Murray, who says he is a teller at Guaranty Trust Bank Liberia, testified that defendant Yancy, serving as teller, received deposits and [did] withdrawals, while Stanley supervised activities of tellers.

Witness Murray said on Wednesday, 7 September that he received Total Liberia deposits between May and June 2015, adding “we were called by our supervisor then Stanley Yorsee to bring the deposit log” because there was an issue on hand that they needed to verify.

He claimed that Yorsee had said they wanted to establish who received the deposits from Total Liberia cashier and who the bulk teller presented the deposit to and which of the posting tellers received the deposit from the bulk teller.

“… [So] I was called upon to present the log, and then the Log could not be found,” the witness said, adding that they searched the entire day and could not find the log. After facing interrogation the next day, witness Murray testified that they realized that Bulk Teller Togba “admitted that he took the log” on the alleged instruction of defendant Yancy.

Earlier on Tuesday, 6 September, second State witness Prince Saye testified that defendant Yancy was responsible to process cash deposit transactions, cash withdrawal transactions, manager’s check and operating expense transaction for the bank.

He claimed that in the performance of these duties, defendant Yancy also received deposits from the bulk room to be posted to customers’ accounts; while defendant Yorsee served as operation head backup responsible to supervise the work of tellers.

While defendants Yancy and Togba were being questioned over the whereabouts of the deposit register, witness Saye recalled one of the bank staff subsequently came and alleged to have seen defendant Togba leaving the Bulk Room in the bank earlier in the day “ with a [bag] on his shoulder.”

As such, witness Saye said suspicion was that Togba had the deposit register in his bag, adding that when Togba and Yancy were quarried based on such suspicion, Togba confessed “that he took the register and placed it in the bag based on the instruction of Yancy.”

Witness Saye claimed that Yancy’s girlfriend later brought the deposit register at the bank along with a black plastic bag containing pre-signed withdrawal slips from some GT-Bank customers, the seller’s copy of Total Liberia deposit slips and some pre-signed GT-Bank slips issue to some customers.

He said when police took Togba and Yancy away to the Liberia National Police Headquarters on Capitol Hill, defendant Yancy allegedly made confession there, alleging that he and Stanley were suppressing the deposits that were not posted to customer’s account as they were using them for loans to the bank’s internal and external customers.

GT-Bank Liberia accused the indictees of loaning the money out without authorization.

By Winston W. Parley-Editing by Jonathan Browne