Krish, the Sawmill the Vice President Dedicated, Explained

May 29, 2025

Top: Perhaps the most active forestry company in Liberia, Krish Veneer Industries exports round logs in addition to plywood and decorated wooden materials. The DayLight/Emmanuel Sherman

By Emmanuel Sherman

BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa – Over the weekend, Vice President Jeremiah Koung dedicated Krish Veneer Industries, perhaps the largest sawmill in Liberia.

Established in 2019, the Indian-owned Krish produces and exports timber, plywood and veneer, a decorated wooden material. It processes between 25,000 and 27,000 cubic meters of wood per year, according to an official environmental audit.

“This is a clear demonstration that India is not only a friend of Liberia in words but in deeds,” Koung told the dedication in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. He toured the facility before breaking ground. A crowd of officials, chiefs and elders celebrated the event with workers dressed in protective gear.

“We are happy because these kinds of investments employ our people. If most of the logs can be put into cubes, planks and other things before getting them out of here, there will be job creation,” added Koung.

It might have been Krish’s dedication; however, the company has been in the news several times over noncompliance with the law. The DayLight has compiled these well-documented facts about Krish with supporting evidence:

Ghost of ‘Blood Timber’

The location Krish occupies is a symbol of sub-regional wartime atrocities. Between 1991 and 1997, Guus Kouwenhoven, a Dutch gunrunner and eventual war criminal, operated the Timber Management Corporation from there.

Koung referenced the facility in his speech. “I know the TIMCO yard used to be around here where we used to burn coal,” he recalled. “We were those children around here doing the wheelbarrow from here to town to carry the coals.”

Picture taken on October 27, 1992, North of Monrovia showing ULIMO members of the Maquis patrolling the area and searching for NPFL members. (Photo by Alain BOMMENEL / AFP)

TIMCO’s logs helped fuel the First Liberian Civil War (1989 – 1997). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that it and other companies illegally traded arms to Liberian militias and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone, leading to mass killings of civilians.

This became known as “blood timber,” “conflict timber,” and “logs of war.” Former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf mentioned it in a recent opinion.

Both Kouwenhoven and his business partner, ex-President Charles Taylor, were convicted of war crimes for their role in the murderous trade. Taylor is serving a 50-year sentence in a British prison. Kouwenhoven, meanwhile, was sentenced to 19 years in absentia by a Dutch court while he lives in South Africa.

Krish Illegally Operates

Krish is a partnership, not a corporation, as required by the Regulation on Bidder Qualifications and the Public Procurement Concession Act. According to its partnership agreement as of March this year, Antique Ahmed and Kamal Parwini are Indian nationals with 57 percent and 43 percent shares, respectively.

The legal instruments restrict forestry companies to corporations, not partnerships. They are a safeguard against the limited liabilities and lifespans of partnerships, as opposed to corporations.

The Public Procurement and Concession Commission has asked the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) to investigate Krish’s business status, according to a letter, seen by The DayLight.

A screenshot of Krish’s partnership agreement

Furthermore, Krish’s head office is in Buchanan, per its legal documents. That violates the National Forestry Reform Law, which calls for all sawmills to have their main offices in Monrovia. This rule is consistent with a provision of a repealed law that was used to hold TIMCO accountable in 2005.

Krish Rents from the FDA Boss’ Family

The land where Krish operates belongs to the family of the FDA Managing Director, Rudolph Merab. Merab inherited the plot from Rose Hill James, his late mother, who inherited it from Merab’s grandfather.

“Merab is from Bassa, and the property is owned by his grandfather,” said Clarence Massaquoi, Merab’s cousin. “Stephen Hill is managing the property; he is a cousin of Merab’s.

A screenshot of an obituary of Edward Merab, Rudolph Marab’s late elder brother, confirms the FDA Managing Director is a member of the Hill family, which owns the land Krish rents.

Khalil Haider, another of Merab’s cousins, corroborated that information. “That place is for Merab’s mother and her family,” Haider said.

The two men’s comments are confirmed by an obituary of Edward, Merab’s elder brother, which shows that the FDA’s boss is a member of the Hill family, the property’s original owners.

This establishes that Merab is caught between two interests involving Krish: a landlord and a forestry regulator. Such a clash breaks the Code of Conduct for Public Officials, which prohibits Merab from “situations of conflict that impair, or are likely to impair, the performance of their official duties.”

Krish’s Manager is Merab’s Cousin

Turns out, Clarence Massaquoi is not only Merab’s cousin but also Krish’s manager, according to FDA records.

Massaquoi is also an ex-employee of Liberia Wood Management Corporation, Merab’s wartime company. “I worked with Merab from 1999 to 2007 in a managerial role,” he told The DayLight in January.

Noteworthy, Massaquoi is ineligible to conduct logging activities in Liberia due to his wartime role. The Regulation on Bidder Qualifications states that wartime loggers must confess their crimes and restitute unpaid or stolen funds, something Massaquoi did not do.

A screenshot of a Krish export permit showing Clarence Massaquoi in the manager’s row.

Krish Benefits from an Unlawful Contract

Krish’s illegal logging love story with Merab and Massaquoi does not end with the pair’s family and work relationships.

Krish does business with C&C Corporation, Massaquoi’s own company. Now C&C has a contract with the Mavasagueh Community Forest, a few miles away from Krish. “I can sell to my plywood factory. My buyers are in Buchanan,” Massaquoi said.

However, C&C’s contract did not follow the law, as the FDA had bypassed legal steps in Mavasagueh’s formation. There are nine steps in the formation of a community forest, characterized by locals’ participation and consent.

In Mavasagueh’s case, some communities adjacent to the forest were left out, there was inadequate awareness, and even people in the communities that the FDA recognized did not participate in the 26,003-hectare forest’s mapping exercise.

Civil Society organizations criticized the formation of the Mavasagueh Community Forest.

The FDA ignored the issues that actors raised, including the absence of civil society organizations during Mavasagueh’s election, which is a requirement.

Matters worsened when Merab allowed Mavasagueh to overlap private land, violating the Community Rights Regulation. Khalil Haider, Merab’s cousin and Paynesville resident, claims 3,200 acres in Mavasagueh.

Haider, who said he was Massaquoi’s step-brother, revealed Merab encouraged him to drop his claim for the contract to continue. Though Merab ignored The DayLight’s queries for his side of the story, Massaquoi corroborated the claim. “Haider and I settled… so the FDA should let the document be processed,” Massaquoi said.

Krish Exports Illegal Timber

April last year, Krish exported 210 logs (1,243 cubic meters), illegally harvested, to Singapore. LiberTrace, the FDA’s computerized system that tracks timber, had red-flagged the logs, but Merab still approved their shipment.

Out of the 210 logs, 66 had minor issues, including differences between their species, sizes and lengths in the system, and the ones exported. A whopping 144, or nearly 70 percent of the consignment, had major errors. There were 66 of these logs whose harvest had not been approved by the FDA.

Krish exported at least three other times to Singapore and the UAE, with some 20 to 30 percent of the logs illegal.

C&C Corporation trucks transport logs from Mavasagueh Community Forest to Krish Veneer Industries. The DayLight/Ojuku Kangar

This story was a Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ) production.

Logs from Conservation Forest Illegally Exported to Europe

May 27, 2025

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Top: An elevated view of a 450-acre plot in the Gba Community Forest in Nimba County being cleared for a mine waste plant. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Esau J. Farr

ArcelorMittal Liberia gave the Gba Community Forest US$150,000 to clear 450 acres for a waste plant, but locals misused the money

Gba and Westwood Corporation signed an MoU to clear-cut the area anyway to make up for the stolen funds

The deal includes an unspecified number of logs that a previous company had illegally harvested, costing the government revenue

FDA authorized Westwood to skip harvesting requirements, including a mapping and GPS-recording of trees, undoing the immediate past administration’s legal order

Westwood exported the timber to Italy, though the harvesting breaks Liberia’s timber trade agreement with the European Union

GBAPA, Nimba County – A cleared patch of the Gba Community Forest, a rocky conservation woodland, welcomes visitors to Sehyi Geh Town. Chainsaw-wielding loggers from a little-known company pile up logs in the clear-cut patch.

As it stands, Westwood Corporation has exported a combined 216 logs (921.124 cubic meters) from Gba, according to official records. The consignments were shipped in March to Sangiorgi Lugnami, a renowned Italian company. A third export of 142 logs has been requested for Bangladesh in the name of Leifwood APS of Denmark.

The exports, however, violate Liberia’s timber trade agreement with the European Union, known as the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA). Under the 2011 agreement, only logs from legal sources, listed and verified, can be exported.

Westwood signed an MoU to clear-cut 450 acres (about 182 hectares) of forestland in the 10,939-hectare forest in Nimba County’s Yarmein District. Westwood agreed to pay Gba US$8 per cubic meter, with the agreement ending next month. A receipt, seen by The DayLight, shows that Westwood deposited US$3,570 into a Gba account last month.

“They have proven to us that they are capable of doing the job due to the machinery they have,” said Samuel Johnson, Gba’s leader, in March. Johnson died shortly after the interview.

But the Gba-Westwood MoU does not qualify the logs as legally sourced. There are five contracts or permits in forestry where legal timber comes from. They are: a forest management contract, a timber sale contract, a community forest management agreement, a private use permit, and a forest use permit.

The GBA-Westwood deal comes close to a forest use permit but differs from it remarkably. This permit is issued through a procurement procedure, for research, tourism, or local use, according to the National Forestry Reform Law and the Regulation on Tender, Award and Administration of Contracts and Permits. The VPA is based on Liberian legal instruments.

Two experts The DayLight interviewed, who preferred not to be named, said the Gba logs were only for domestic markets. They can be converted into planks, generate additional income for locals, and provide temporary employment opportunities for chainsaw millers.

The Nimba flycatcher z

Initially, Westwood was not in the picture. ArcelorMittal Liberia had given Gba US$150,000 in 2014 to clear 450 acres for a mine waste plant. The money was also compensation for a 60-acre plot the company had earlier cleared.

Gba, however, misapplied the funds and failed to clear the area. Subsequently, Gba’s allegedly corrupt leadership was replaced in a scandal that rocked community forestry.

“[ArcelorMittal] paid US$150,000 to Gba to buy a machine or equipment to fell these trees or clear everything out of the site,” said Saye Thompson, the leader for the Blei Community Forest in the same region.

Westwood has exported 216 logs from an illegal source to Italy. Picture credit: Anonymous

Nyan Flomo, who has taken up a leadership role in the wake of Johnson’s death, corroborated that account. ArcelorMittal did not respond to queries for comment up to press time.

The US$150,000 aside, the Westwood arrangement breaks Gba’s original MoU with ArcelorMittal. The document obligates the steel giant to identify trees and guide the clear-cutting process. It nullifies any other MoU associated with the harvesting, such as the one with Westwood.

Gba and ArcelorMittal are conservation partners. Gba is one of four communities adjacent to the East Nimba Nature Reserve (ENNR). Home to the endangered Nimba toad and Nimba flycatcher, the ENNR is part of the Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site, running through Liberia, Ivory Coast and Guinea.

Gba co-manages the 13,500-hectare forestland alongside ArcelorMittal, FDA, Blei, Sehyi Ko-doo, and Zor. This collaboration helps protect plants and animals of that region, which, experts say, renders logging harmful to that ecosystem.

And the stakes are higher for Westwood, with Gba its first official operation. The company has experience in construction, having constructed a stretch of the Gbarnga-Lofa highway in 2014. Samuel Cooper, its CEO, declined to speak on the matter.

‘Inability to perform’

Permitting Westwood to export, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) undid what its past administration had done to enforce the law. In a February letter, Managing Director Rudolph Merab excluded Westwood from cutting blocks—regulated forest portions where harvesting occurs. Merab, who did not return emailed questions, has spoken before about deregulation and a drive to increase timber exports.

“Following a desk review of your acquisition of the Gba Community Forest…, you are hereby approved to commence operations,” read the letter.

Merab’s action is the complete opposite of how the FDA handled the Gba case nearly 10 years ago. In 2016, Gba signed a similar MoU with the Liberia Tree Trading Company Thanry. However, the FDA administration then ensured that LTTC Thanry had an annual plan that contained blocks and a map to regulate the harvesting, at least consistent with the law.

Later, Gba terminated LTTC Thanry’s contract due to its “inability to perform,” bringing in Six S (6S) International Trading Limited.

Screenshot of a 2016 FDA report that validated 450 acres in the Gba Community Forest to be clear-cut. However, the current FDA administration deviated from this standard to allow Westwood Corporation to clear-cut the forest.

Though Six S had the capacity, the FDA disapproved of the new company’s harvest because it deviated from the approved plan, several past and present FDA officials familiar with the matter said.

“I [confirm] that during my time at the [legality verification department], 6S did not receive any export permit in LiberTrace,” said Deputy FDA Managing Director Gertrude Nyaley. At the time, Mrs. Nyaley headed the department, which co-manages LiberTrace, the computer system that tracks Liberian timber. She said the company had a tax issue, but, like the anonymous sources, presented no evidence. Six S’s official number did not ring, and it did not answer emailed queries.

Whether unauthorized harvesting or taxes, the Gba-Westwood MoU included an unspecified number of the problematic logs that Six S cut. This violates the Regulation on Confiscated Logs, Timber and Timber Products.

Per the regulation, the FDA is required to investigate, seek a warrant to auction the logs, and fine Six S. Instead, Merab permitted Six S to sell the logs in question to Westwood for US$34 and US$55, losing that revenue.

‘Behind the Curtain’

Gba locals The DayLight interviewed said they were unaware of the Westwood agreement. They had only heard it through the sound of earthmovers and loggers in the forest.

“First, when they came, they just went into the forest and we said, ‘No, you don’t do things like that,’” recalled Aaron Lah, the town chief of Sehyi Geh Town. ‘“This is a town and people are here. Why did you people just come and not reach the townspeople before going into the forest?’”

The Social Entrepreneurs for Sustainable Development (SESDev), a Paynesville-based NGO training Gba’s leaders in forest governance since 2023, said it was not informed about the deal.

Thompson, the Community Forests Union’s head, said there were missteps.

“If you don’t share information on what you are doing, it becomes corruption,” said Thompson. “Everything is behind the curtain.”

Liberia Forest Media Watch provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.

Lebanese Smuggles Timber and Wins US$500K World Bank Bid

May 25, 2025

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Top: A graphic depicting Lebanese businessperson Moussa Abdul Karim, the University of Liberia’s department of fisheries and aquaculture sciences and timber advertised, and timber blocks Karim advertises on his WhatsApp profile. Graphic by Rebazar Forte and pictures by Franklin Nehyalor

By Varney Kamara

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series on a Lebanese businessperson’s illegal activities.

In 2023, Mak Enterprises won a bid to construct the fisheries department at the University of Liberia, valued at nearly US$500,000, provided by the World Bank.

Mak’s owner, Moussa Abdul Karim, smuggles timber, including a US$350,000 consignment, a year before the bid.

Between 2017 and 2025, Karim evaded payments for work and resident permits, bringing into question Mak Enterprises’ eligibility for the contract.

Official documents identify Karim as a Lebanese. However, Immigration authorities revealed Karim also holds a Guinean passport—another offense.

Authorities say they would investigate Karim.

MONROVIA – On March 29, a distinguished crowd gathered at the University of Liberia’s Fendell campus to witness the official handover of its fisheries and aquaculture sciences department. Managed by the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA) with support from the World Bank, the state-of-the-art facility features 28 rooms.

The two-story building was constructed by Mak Enterprises Incorporated, a Lebanese-owned real estate company established in April 2017, according to its articles of incorporation and business registration certificate. The company had defeated 20 other bidders to win the bid for the US$498,203.52 contract, intended to improve Liberia’s fisheries sector.

“This facility will serve as a beacon of knowledge, training future generations of fisheries professionals, scientists, and policymakers who will drive the sustainable development of Liberia’s vast marine resources,” Dr. Layli Marpanyan, president of the University of Liberia, told the dedication ceremony.

Perhaps, what no one knew was that Mak Enterprises’ owner, Moussa Abdul Karim, was involved in illegal timber trafficking, tax evasion and money laundering. Karim’s illegal activities have defrauded the Liberian Government of tens of thousands of United States dollars for nearly a decade, a DayLight investigation found.

The findings raise questions as to how Mak Enterprises won the bid to construct the fisheries college when the other bidders failed due to noncompliance. The second part of this series will investigate Karim’s path to clinching the contract, including his company’s tender.

A year before winning the bid, Karim exported a US$135,000 worth of sawn timber through his second company, Mak Timber Group Liberia Inc. The buyer was Popular Export & Import Company of Bangladesh, according to the Ministry of Commerce & Industry’s records. Mak Timber Group’s tax history shows no payments for timber transport, permit, export and phytosanitary certificate, a Ministry of Agriculture document that certifies that the timber is pest-free for shipment.

Forestry Development Authority (FDA) records show that the export occurred outside LiberTrace, the legal channel through which timber is traded in and out of Liberia. It is a crucial part of Liberia’s timber trade agreement with the European Union, known as the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA). Liberian Timber trade is strictly regulated under the National Forestry Reform Law and the Regulation on Establishing a Chain of Custody System, which requires timber harvest, transport, export, and associated payments to be recorded in LiberTrace.

Experts say Liberia loses about US$1 billion each year due to these illegal financial transactions. In 2023, the US-based Associated Press reported that 70 percent of Liberian timber is perhaps exported outside the legal channel, citing diplomatic sources.

‘Exotic timber’

Apart from the lone export, there are no other traces of Karim’s illicit timber trafficking, but social media provides some clues. Pictures of the wood advertised on Karim’s WhatsApp profile show timber blocks, commonly called Kpokolo, in large and medium sizes, bearing a striking resemblance to other documented timber smugglers.

Though Mak Timber Group Liberia Inc. has exported at least once, this screenshot of Moussa Abdul Karim’s WhatsApp profile shows pictures of timber that he likely smuggled out of Liberia from Grand Bassa County

The pictures share the same caption: “exotic timber & services,” under the banner “Mak Enterprises Inc,” a combination of Karim’s wood and construction businesses. In one picture, timber blocks are shown neatly parked in a container. In another, a man stands behind a pile of gigantic timber blocks on an open field.

Most of the timber in the pictures are marked “AWLC” for African Wood & Lumber Company, which has a contract with the Marblee & Karblee Community Forest in Compound Number Two, Grand Bassa County. Cesare Colombo, African Wood & Lumber’s owner, denies having any connection with Karim or his company.

“We don’t know who those people are, we do not have any connection or discussion with them. I just received this information from you and I will take all the necessary action to avoid this kind of problem,” Colombo said in an email reply to The DayLight.

Tax histories of Mak Enterprises, Mak Timber Group and Atlantic Developers & Logistics—Karim’s third company—revealed he evaded more than US$12,000 for work and residents permits between 2017 and 2025.

The DayLight estimated the value based on official prices: non-Africans pay US$1,000 for a regular work permit, and US$750 for an initial resident permit and US$350 for a renewal. We separately multiplied those figures by nine years, the lifespan of the oldest of Karim’s companies, and added the products. The amount did not include fees that Karim did not pay to the FDA or the Ministry of Agriculture.

Per the work permit regulation, foreign nationals doing business in Liberia must hold valid work permits or risk fines, ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, including sanctions or expulsion.

Similarly, foreigners residing and doing business in Liberia without a resident permit violate the Aliens and Nationality Law. The law obligates non-Liberians to obtain a resident permit, and failure to do so constitutes a violation, whose penalties include fines or deportation.

The Ministry of Labor and the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) confirmed that they did not have any records of Karim, except for one instance.

“We have checked the system and did not find any payment records there,” said Ralphael Donokolo II, Assistant Minister for Alien Registration and Liberianization at the Ministry of Labor.

In 2021, Karim paid US$150 for a resident permit under Mak Timber Group with a Guinean passport, according to the Liberia Immigration Service. However, the business registration certificates of Mak Enterprises and the other companies indicate that Karim is Lebanese. This was corroborated by a 2016 court case involving Mak Enterprises, where a judge was suspended for one year for soliciting a bribe, only to eventually rule in Karim’s favor.

A screenshot of the FDA log-tracking system shows that Mak Timber Group Liberia Inc. shows that the company has never used the system to export timber, proof of his smuggling activities.

By law, Karim is required to provide his “full and true name” and accurate information when applying for visas, resident permits, or other official documents. Using multiple identities constitutes fraud and can lead to expulsion, deportation, and criminal prosecution for violators.

“You cannot carry two identities in Liberia as an alien,” said Elijah Rufus, Commissioner General-designate of the Liberia Immigration Service, via WhatsApp.

Karim did not respond to queries. He evaded detailed questions The DayLight posed to him through WhatsApp text messages and repeated reminders. Joseph Bennett, his lawyer, did not return the queries either.

Labor and immigration authorities disclosed they were investigating Karim, based on The DayLight’s queries. Donokolo said, “In line with the law, he will be fined USD3,000, plus additional USD1,000 for accepting to work without a valid work permit.”

This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).

Men, Tradition Denying Women’s Rights to Land

May 13, 2025

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Top: Women farm rice in a swamp in Gbarmue Town, Jorpolu Clan in Bong County. The DayLight/Harry Browne

By Esau J. Farr and Harry Browne

JORPOLU CLAN, Bong County – In 2018, Liberia passed the Land Rights Act. The historic legislation grants communities and women customary ownership of ancestral land, putting an end to decades of deprivation.

About seven years on, men who use age-old traditional beliefs still deny their female relatives access to land. The DayLight interviewed half a dozen women in the Bong County clan of Jorpolu in the Zota-Panta District with heart-wrenching experiences.

“It is difficult for many women, including me, to engage family members about the farmland issue. This place is interior and people can sometimes use tradition to get rid of you,” says Rebecca Gbartawee, a Worta resident.

“As a woman, if you continue, something may happen to you, or they will think that you want to use traditional means to get the land from them.”

Gbartawee was born in Worta, a town in the Jorpolu Clan, where she happily lived with her parents. Her family farmed rice and other crops on a huge plot year in and year out. However, after her father died, her uncles deprived her mother of farming on the land.

Gbartawee fled to Gbarmue, her mother’s hometown, about a 30-minute walk from Worta. There, Gbartawee’s hopes for a better life were immediately shattered. There and again, they were denied access to a plot owned by her maternal family. Her uncles refused to share the farmland with women.

With no access to her ancestral farmland, Gbartawee struggles to support her children. She had lost her husband, the breadwinner, back in Warta. Her late husband’s family took over their business and everything that they had worked for over the years.

Rebecca Gbartawee of Worta in Gbarmue. The DayLight/Harry Browne

“To get food for my children, I have to struggle. At times, I beg people to give me a piece of farmland to make a farm and feed my children. Their father is no more,” Gbartawee said. “This is very difficult for me to support my children.”

Like Gbartawee, Quita and her sister Kebbeh Leayne have an issue with their elderly brother, Paul Leayne. Their parents died decades ago, leaving behind the rubber farm north of Gbarmue. However, Paul does not share proceeds from the farm with his siblings, according to Quita and Kebbeh.

It is a small farm with about 500 rubber trees, accessible only on foot. We travel through two other larger rubber farms on a motorbike, and at a point, we get off the bike and walk to reach it.

“We have long discussed this one thing and my brother can’t listen to anyone. When he taps the rubber, he sells it and doesn’t give us any of the money,” says Quita at a local entertainment center.

“I want my share of the rubber farm so I can feed my children and me,” adds Quita.

We catch up with Paul at his house, near a lush green cocoa bush. At first, he declines, but now he grants us an interview, denying Quita’s story. He says he gives Quita some of the money he generates from the farm.

“The last time I gave her money was in 2023. Since then, I have not been active with tapping because I am making a rice farm,” Paul tells us.

Kebbeh, the youngest of the three Leaynes, refutes those claims, corroborating Quita’s assertion. “He has put us out of the house that our parents built. He said he is the only child of our parents,” Kebbeh tells reporters. She and her elder sister urge the government to pay more attention to women’s rights.

The experience of Mamie Dolo, also a Gbarmue resident, is similar to that Leayne. Dolo and her mother were compelled to settle in Gbarmue, Dolo’s husband’s hometown, after her father’s death.

Dolo’s father, who had encouraged her to farm on a portion of the land that he and his brother shared, had fallen ill and gone to Monrovia for treatment. Unfortunately, he passed away. After his death, her uncles had demanded she pay them a fee, which she refused.

Dolo’s nightmare continued even after one of her uncles died and the other left the town. Her cousins also demanded an annual fee to farm on their land. However, after two years of payment, Dolo pulled out of the arrangement and turned to selling cooked bowls.

Enforcement

Denying women their rights to landownership with ill-fated customs and traditions was the very thing the Land Rights Act was created to prevent. Before the law, women were not allowed to publicly discuss land matters in rural communities, let alone to own it.

Quita Leayne of Gbarmue. The DayLight/Harry Browne

Asa Chon, the country manager of ForumCiv, a Gbarnga-based NGO working with five communities, urges rural women to take courage amid cultural obstacles.

“We know that there are some discriminatory norms. There are still pockets of resistance,” says Chon in an interview at last year’s National Land Conference in Ganta, Nimba County. “Change is not an event. Change is a process.

“But things are not as common as they were in the past. There is growing awareness,” adds Chon.

Paul Leayne, the brother of Quita Leayne in their father’s rubber farm. The DayLight/Harry Browne

There has been some success, as Chons says. Jorpolu—the clan Worta, Gbarmue, Wiansue and Banama are located—is pursuing a customary land deed. Parley Liberia, another Gbarnga-based NGO, assists locals through legal steps to achieve their goal. As part of that, townswomen, including Gbartawee, attend awareness meetings. Others listen to radio programs on the subject.

Some women are already putting their knowledge to work. Last year, Zinnah Mulbah, a woman in her 50s in Wiansue, a 25-minute motorcycle ride from Gbarmue, won a legal battle.

Mulbah filed a lawsuit against James Kollie, her fiancé, at the Gbarlatuah Magisterial Court. Mulbah was awarded half of all the properties they acquired in their three-decade relationship.

Court documents show she received one house, a motorcycle, household utensils, and 50 pieces of planks. The court awarded her US$1,020 as her share of a plot of land and a car. She got another L$37,800 (US$190), her share of concrete bricks. Additionally, the court awarded her 20 percent of the proceeds from the rubber farm in the June 5, 2024 ruling.

The Lawmaker’s Fake Logging Company

May 12, 2025

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Top: Representative Romeo Quioh (standing third from the left) poses for a picture with an African Finch Logging Limited executive and townspeople of Numopoh. Picture credit: Anonymous

By Varney Kamara

Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a series on Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh’s involvement with a Sinoe County Community Forest Contract.

MONROVIA – In May last year, African Finch Logging Limited was established to trade timber and other forest products. The company is owned by Finch General Trading FZE, a UAE-based firm, according to its articles of incorporation and business registration certificate.

But African Finch did not declare its beneficial owners, the human beings who own the company, based on its legal, and other official documents the DayLight obtained. This is a breach of the Beneficial Ownership Regulation. The 2023 regulation requires companies to register their beneficial owners as a way of combating money laundering, tax evasion and terrorist financing. The DayLight has written the Liberia Business Registry about African Finch’s illegal registration.

Now, alerted by African Finch’s suspicious documents, DayLight investigated its parent company, Finch General Trading FZE’s UAE status.

The investigation found that Finch General is not registered in the Ajman business registry, as African Finch’s legal documents claim. Finch General is not even recorded in the UAE’s database. Further search in the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) Aleph, one of the world’s largest databases of companies, got the same result.

To verify that information, we searched and found Blue Carbon, the Emirati firm that unsuccessfully sought a carbon credit deal with Liberia in 2023. We also found Prestige Constructions LLC obtained from a tax company’s website as a sample of a real certificate.

Next, The DayLight reviewed Finch General’s website and found more issues.

The website’s host, NameSilo, is a legitimate website host. However, it is widely credited with offering privacy protection services, which experts say can be exploited to hide individuals’ identities.

Finch General Trading FZE is located at SM Office HI 222D, Ajman Free Zone, according to the website. But the geolocation it provides points to ASL Logistics, a shipping and distribution company. Also, the website directs users to verify its legitimacy via another site for official business, instead of the official Ajman Free Zone domain for verification.

Red flags

With Finch General’s UAE status unconfirmed and issues with its website discovered, reporters reviewed a Finch General business certificate that Thomas Romeo Quioh, Representative of Sinoe County District-1, posted on Facebook. Quioh had posted the document to disprove the newspaper’s report that he admitted to being on African Finch’s board of directors.

A previous DayLight investigation had cited townsfolk and local officials in Numopoh District, Sinoe County, who alleged he co-owned African Finch. An African Finch executive confirmed Quioh’s control of the company, telling The DayLight to “Speak to [the] Hon.” on company matters.

Locals accused Quioh of bribing and intimidating them into signing an MoU with African Finch on the same day it was introduced. African Finch has signed a contract for logging in the Numopoh Community Forest in Sinoe’s Kpayan District. Quioh denies the allegations.

DayLight’s review of the document Quioh posted found several discrepancies consistent with a forgery. The evidence suggests it was used to register African Finch in Liberia, as it was notarized the same day as the article of incorporation.

Finch General Trading FZE’s fake business incorporation certificate that was posted by Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh on Facebook

First, the document contains a passport with identification number 167557. However, the format used is invalid and short for a UAE passport. UAE passport numbers typically consist of eight digits, including letters, and not six.

Second, it was issued on August 11, 2020—seven years after the company’s registration on September 26, 2013—a red flag. Also, it lacks QR codes and barcodes, important features on UAE business certificates for verifying a company’s legal status.

Finally, it does not name Finch General’s beneficial owners, violating the UAE’s Regulation on the Procedures Related to Real Beneficiaries. Like its Liberian counterpart, the UAE regulation calls for all companies to list their ultimate beneficial owners.

All these findings mean that African Finch lied under oath about its status in the UAE, which constitutes perjury, according to the Regulation on Bidder Qualifications. Moreover, faking the UAE document constitutes forgery, a crime under Liberian law.

Also, Quioh’s stated role on African Finch’s board, the company’s hidden shareholders, and its unproven UAE status do not rule out the likelihood that he co-owns it. His control of African Finch violates the National Forestry Reform Law and the Code of Conduct for Public Officials.

Both laws prohibit a lawmaker from controlling a private firm conducting business with the Liberian government. As a lawmaker, Quioh is naturally a member of the Numopoh Community Forest’s leadership and oversees the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), which regulates the industry. The FDA did not respond to queries for comments.

Similarly, the lawmaker’s office declined to respond to detailed queries on African Finch. However, appearing on an Okay FM talk show last week, Quioh claimed he had mistakenly mentioned African Finch. He meant to say Numopoh.

But the evidence contradicts his claim. Quioh mentioned multiple times in a Facebook post that he was on African Finch’s board, which is inconsistent with a mistake.

“As a duly elected lawmaker and… a member of the advisory board of the Board of Directors of African Finch Incorporation, my involvement in forestry-related matters is strictly within the confines of my legislative oversight responsibilities,” said Quioh in the first mention.

A screenshot of The DayLight’s WhatsApp conversation with Kwadjo Asabre, an African Finch executive

“My role was guided solely by my legislative oversight responsibilities and my position on the advisory board of directors of African Finch…, which is fully aligned with law and transparency,” added Quioh in the second.

To cover up, he altered that line by adding “community forest management committee,” a nonexistent structure. The DayLight documented the two versions of the post.

Furthermore, Quioh’s cover-up comment of being an advisor to Numopoh is unrealistic. In community forestry, lawmakers do not advise. Instead, they supervise community forests’ day-to-day activities, including plans, budgets and even the removal of unscrupulous forest leaders.

African Finch did not return detailed questions on its Liberian and Emirati registration. Edem Macarfui, the company’s registered agent, who receives its legal communications, referred this reporter to Kwadjo Asabre, the company executive who had asked the newspaper to speak to Quioh.

“We don’t have any response for you. We do not support mischief and dishonest publications. It’s cowardice,” said Asabre.

“Don’t text me again.”

This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).

Monthly Archives: May 2025

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