Top: A 2022 photo shows an earthmover loading logs into a container in Grand Bassa County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue
By Samuel Jabba
MONROVIA – A scrap company on the Japanese Freeway shipped round logs to India outside the legal channel for timber export. Elephant Multipurpose Corporation exported the seven round logs to India in January, according to records of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The shipment was confirmed by Market Insight, an international trade data company and subsidiary of Business Insider, the US-based global financial news giant. It is the only shipment the company, established in 2021, has made. Omkara Overseas, an Indian textile firm, was the buyer.
But records from the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) show that the export occurred outside of LiberTrace, the legal channel for timber trading, known as the Chain of Custody System. The evidence reveals that Elephant Corporation is not registered in the FDA’s system, and has never traded through it. Additionally, Sundeh Albert Blanyon, the FDA’s Deputy Managing Director for Technical Services, confirmed the information.
Forestry Regulation on Establishing a Chain of Custody System requires that timber be shipped through the system so it can be traced from its origins to its final destinations. It guarantees tax payment and community benefit.
Having exported timber outside the system, Elephant Corporation evaded substantial taxes to the government and the community where the timber originated. Taxes include land rental, harvesting, and other fees.
“We have observed a lot of smuggling activities in timber exports. This has not improved businesses and revenue payment to the Government,” says Jonathan Yiah, the lead forest campaigner at the Sustainable Development Institute, a Margibi-based NGO. “Smuggling is bringing a lot of frustration within the affected communities.”
Penalties
Elephant Multipurpose Corporation was founded on October 12, 2021, according to its legal documents at the Liberia Business Registry. Mr. Sheriff has 60 percent shares, and Ayouba Kamara has the remaining ones.
Efforts to interview Sheriff and Kamara did not materialize. However, Mohamed M. Sidibey, an Elephant Corporation executive, claimed that the company had bought the logs at a public auction at the Freeport of Monrovia. He presented no evidence.
The National Port Authority did not confirm or deny the alleged auction. An NPA spokesman said the agency could not say anything about the export because it did not have the identification number of the container in which the logs were exported.
Regardless, the facts corroborate the procedure surrounding the auction.
NPA auctions goods that overstay at the ports nationwide. However, it does not have the authority to auction timber. Instead, that authority belongs to the FDA, per the Regulation on Abandoned Logs, Timber and Timber Products.
The 2017 regulation requires the FDA to auction unattended logs with a court warrant. Violators face a fine, confiscation of their properties, and imprisonment, but companies exploit poor coordination among government agencies, customs brokers and truckers.
Confronted with the inconsistency, Sidibey shrugged off the likelihood of Elephant Corporation facing any penalties.
“I don’t know about any violation. When they close the company, then we will sit down. I don’t have a problem with the fines or imprisonment; that’s not an issue,” Sidibey said.
Much is unknown about Mr. Kamara’s track record, but his partner is all too familiar. A 2026 General Auditing Commission report found that Mr. Sheriff and 14 Nimba officials misappropriated US$12 million and L$55 million (US$305,555 today) from the county’s social and county development fund. Mr. Sheriff did not respond to queries for comment on that issue.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia.
