No Evidence that U.S Department of Treasury Recommend Sanctions For Boakai Officials

 Claim: “The U.S Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control has recommended several individuals in the ‘Pres. Joseph Boakai’s regime to be sanctioned for human rights violation, corruption, and money laundering.’"

Source: Lord-Alpha Gray, CDC Staunch Supporter

Verdict: Unproven! We found no evidence that the U.S. Department of Treasury has recommended any sanction for several individuals in President Boakai's regime.

Full Text: Lord-Alpha Gray, a staunch supporter of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) of former president George Weah, claimed that the U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has recommended sanctions for several individuals in the President Joseph N. Boakai administration for alleged human rights violations, corruption, and money laundering.

In another post, he named key top officials in the Boakai administration who have been recommended to be sanctioned by OFAC, including current Vice President, Jeremiah Kpan Koung, alleged money laundering, human rights abuse, and corruption; Police Inspector General, Gregory O.W. Coleman, alleged human rights abuse; Sylvester Grisby, Minister for State and Presidential Affairs, alleged corruption; and Sam Gaye, Director of Executive Protection Service (EPS), alleged human rights abuse.

Verification: Gray, the poster of this claim, was contacted, and he confirmed that his source is within the U.S. Department of Treasury.

“Thank you for reaching out to verify my information. To assist you with your fact-checking, I am pleased to share with you that my source is within the Department of the Treasury in the U.S., names withheld. However, below are few of the names that have been recommended to be placed on the OFAC list for corruption, money laundering, and human rights abuses:

 

1. Jeremiah Kpan Koung (Vice President): Money laundering, corruption, human rights abuse

2. Gregory Coleman (Inspector General of Police): Human rights abuse

3. Sylvester Grisby (Minister of State): Corruption

4. Sam Gaye (EPS Director): Human rights abuse. The five on the list. One person name was not mentioned. No one in the regime can ever disprove this information; I throw out this as a challenge to them.”

Gray further shared a link believed to be a link from the website of the U.S. Department of Treasury. 

We used scamdoc to verify the link, which shows that the link is authentic. 

We further searched the official website of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and we didn’t find any recommendations of sanctions relating to the officials of President Boakai’s as claimed by Gray.

The latest report on sanctions was posted on February 6, 2025, and it is related to Balkans-related, Counter Terrorism, and Cyber-related Designations; Issurance of Counter Terrorism General License; Settlement Agreement between the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and Haas Automation, Inc. 

Conclusion: Our search, coupled with findings, suggests that the claim made by Gray is unproven.

Written by G. Richard Watson, Montserrado Fellow