Firm that paid Obama adviser in business with
warlord-tied official
By Richard Cohen
Published August 11, 2012
FoxNews.com
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May 30, 2012: Former Liberian President Charles Taylor listens to the
judge at the opening of the sentencing hearing near The Hague. (Reuters)
A South African company in the spotlight for paying $100,000 in speaking
fees to White House adviser David Plouffe is also in business with a Liberian
official under U.N. sanctions for his ties to convicted war criminal and former
Liberian dictator Charles Taylor.
That's among the latest details to emerge on the connections involving
MTN Group, a subsidiary of which paid President Obama's former campaign manager for
engagements in late 2010, shortly before he joined the White House.
The ties to Liberia's bloody Taylor era center on Benoni Urey, who was
commissioner of maritime affairs in Liberia during Taylor's reign. Urey remains
on the U.N. assets-freeze and travel-ban list, even though a U.N. committee
last month removed more than a dozen other Taylor allies from the list.
Urey is deeply involved with an entity called PLC Investments Limited,
which is MTN's business partner in
Liberia. MTN confirmed the companies together own Liberia's Lonestar Cell MTN
-- MTN owns 60 percent, and PLC Investments owns the rest. MTN has been in
Liberia since 2006.
Before MTN got involved, the Lonestar company was suspected of being a
"source of funds" for Taylor himself, according to a 2009 U.N.
report.
That report also detailed Urey's involvement, saying he and another
individual tied to Taylor, Emmanuel Shaw, held positions on the Lonestar board
of directors. Urey's current role with PLC is a bit hazy -- according to the
U.N. report, one Liberian official reported Urey and Shaw owned PLC
Investments, though other documents disputed that. Still, the report showed both officials
were being paid by the company, and according to FrontPageAfrica newspaper,
Urey and Shaw have been confirmed as current PLC managers.
A 2005 report by the Coalition for International Justice claimed Urey
helped Taylor "siphon off" money from a shipping entity to buy arms.
Further, the report said he was a "primary liaison for the illegal
purchase of weapons" in Liberia from infamous international arms dealer
Viktor Bout.
Investigations of MTN by the United Nations and others have revealed not
only its connections with war criminals in Liberia, but also "collusion
with the Taliban in Afghanistan and providing surveillance technology to
governments keen on cracking down on dissent," in Iran and elsewhere,
according to ESG Insider, a news and opinion web site on corporate governance.
The firm has subsidiaries in more than 20 countries in Africa, the Middle East
and Europe.
The continuing reports on MTN's shady background are sure to fuel
criticisms of Plouffe, whose speaking fees from the firm were initially
reported this month by The Washington Post. News reports have revealed the
company's broad web of sometimes shady connections, plus MTN's efforts to
distance itself from Urey. MTN officials have denied any wrongdoing in the
affairs.
In a statement to FoxNews.com, MTN Corporate Affairs Director Paul
Norman downplayed Urey's role.
"Mr. Urey has no involvement in the day-to-day management or
running of MTN Liberia, nor does MTN have the legal authority to remove Mr.
Urey from his relationship with PLC Investments," he said. "MTN has
been working to ensure that all parties in this joint company operate to the
high standards of ethics and governance that are expected by MTN. Given
Liberia's recent history and the process of political reconciliation underway,
the restructuring of MTN's interests in Liberia is a long and ongoing
process."
Republican sources on Capitol Hill said Plouffe's fees and the MTN
activities loom as a combustible issue in Obama's re-election campaign.
"It will be a lingering problem for Plouffe and undercuts the White
House's central claim that Obama represents hope and change," said a
senior House Republican aide. "This is a fly at the picnic that is not
going away."
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney dismissed Republican attacks on
Plouffe following the Post report as "political criticism after the
fact."
A White House official told FoxNews.com on Friday it's "worth
noting" the heaviest criticism over MTN -- which came from watchdog United
Against Nuclear Iran -- about its dealings in the Iran didn't start until 2012.
"Seems like if MTN was a notable public problem in 2010, they might
have started their campaign then, given how attuned they are to the
issue," the official said in an email, suggesting Plouffe might have had
limited knowledge of this controversy when he accepted the speaking fees.
"David Plouffe referred this proposed speech, as he did others, to
counsel for further review," the official said. "No other issues of
concern were raised in the course of the review he requested."
As for the Liberia connection, Taylor, who resigned in 2003, had long
been out of power when Plouffe gave the speeches for MTN. Urey, though, was
still out in the open.
Other concerns with MTN mostly center on its business with Iran. A
lawsuit filed by a spurned competitor earlier this year in U.S. District Court
in Washington, D.C. claimed the firm engaged in a "premeditated program of
corruption" that allegedly included efforts to arm Iran and secure
favorable United Nations votes regarding its nuclear program in exchange for a
mobile-phone license.
The claims surfaced in U.S. court long after Plouffe accepted the
speaking fees. But the suit alleges that the "corruption" was well
under way dating back to 2004, though MTN has denied the accusations.
MTN is trying to get the case dismissed, arguing in a court filing last
month that it is "nothing more than a commercial dispute" over
competition for a license -- a dispute that does not belong in U.S. court, they
say.
The White House has noted Plouffe's interaction with MTN in 2010 was
confined to speeches and that he did not meet separately with company
executives when he gave those speeches in Nigeria.
In 2009, Plouffe donated $50,000 to a public-interest group after he was
criticized for taking the fee for a speech in Azerbaijan.
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