LIBERIA – The Liberia National Police has charged and sent to court Maria Morgan Luyken who was recently found guilty of human trafficking at the Criminal Court “B” and five others for allegedly duping and stealing US$250,000.00 from some members of an organization on the Capitol Bye-pass, Monrovia.
The defendants are Maria Morgan Luyken along with former representative aspirants for Montserrado district #6 Reginald Taylor, Bismarck Appleton, Amos Benjamin, Ralph Johnson, and Mattia Yancy.
The defendants were charged with the crimes of criminal conspiracy, theft of property, and fraud which are in violation of Chapters 10 and 15 sections 10.2, 15.51, and 15.70 of the Revised Penal Code of Liberia.
According to the complaint filed, based on the complaint filed by Madela Zayzay and others in which they alleged that about 500 members were duped out of the amount of USD$250,000.00 by way of a networking program through a purported organization, namely the “CIRCLE OF LIFE FELLOWSHIP”.
The complaint revealed that about 500 members joined the organization in separate months in the year 2020; they all registered with the amount of USD 500.00 and at the end of every four to six weeks, the organization was obligated to pay the amount of US$2,000.00 to each member based upon.
The complaint investigation explained that the general overseer of this organization Defendant Maria Morgan Luyken in collaboration with her cohorts or accomplices, defendants Taylor, Appleton, Benjamin, Johnson, and Yancy criminally conspired and breached the initial agreement made to the detriment of members.
The police investigation revealed that the defendants voluntarily admitted to being the officials’ members of the purported organization.
The police established conducted that the organization is not officially registered with the requisite government Agencies of Liberia as a business entity therefore the defendants admitted to depriving some of the victims of their benefits.
According to the police, some of the victims and reporting persons provided receipts that were given to them by the officials of the organization name, defendants Luyken, Taylor, Appleton, Benjamin, and Yancy in order to authenticate the claims.
