By Socrates Smythe Saywon | Smart News Liberia
MONROVIA – Former Financial Intelligence Agency Director General Stanley S. Ford on Thursday, April 30, 2026, mounted a strong defense in the ongoing US$6.2 million corruption case, rejecting allegations that former National Security Advisor Jefferson Karmoh unlawfully brought the FIA into Liberia’s National Joint Security structure.
Testifying before Criminal Court “C” at the Temple of Justice in Monrovia, Ford appeared as the second witness for the defense after earlier testimony from former Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel D. Tweah.
At the center of Ford’s testimony was a July 2023 letter written by Karmoh, which prosecutors claim served as an unauthorized admission of the FIA into the National Joint Security system.
But Ford told the court that the prosecution’s interpretation of the letter was inaccurate. He said the document merely assigned the FIA the communication code “800” to improve coordination and communication with other national security institutions.
According to Ford, granting a communication code is entirely different from formally making an institution a member of the National Joint Security Council.
He explained that under Liberia’s National Security Act, only the Minister of Justice, who chairs the Joint Security Council, has the authority to officially admit any agency into that body.
Reading directly from the letter, Ford quoted Karmoh as stating that the FIA was being made part of the national joint security “apparatus” and was authorized to assign derivative codes to staff members.
Ford emphasized that the term “apparatus” referred to systems and infrastructure rather than organizational membership.
He told the court that the letter related to secure communications systems, operational equipment, badges, and coded access mechanisms intended to support coordination among security institutions.
“This was never an instrument admitting the FIA into the Joint Security body,” Ford argued, adding that the communication arrangement did not expand the FIA’s legal mandate or institutional powers.
The high-profile case has drawn national attention, as Ford is standing trial alongside Tweah, Karmoh, former Acting Justice Minister Nyanti Tuan, and former FIA Comptroller D. Moses P. Cooper.
The defendants are facing multiple charges including economic sabotage, money laundering, theft of public funds, misuse of public money, and criminal conspiracy.
State prosecutors allege that the accused conspired in July 2023 to unlawfully position the FIA within the National Security Council framework in violation of existing laws.
Earlier in the trial, the prosecution’s first witness, Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission investigator Baba Mohammed Boika, testified that Karmoh acted alone by writing the letter without proper authorization.
Boika further claimed that only the Minister of Justice had authority to make such a decision and suggested the move was part of a broader scheme to use FIA accounts to handle disputed public funds.
