June 18th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – The government of the United States said it is investigating South Sudan corruption charges targeting accounts belonging to the South Sudan President Salva Kiir and SPLM-IO leader Dr. Riek Machar including senior government officials.
The U.S Under-Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Sigal Mandelker who met officials from the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and bank Executives in Nairobi said the investigation targets Kiir and Machar and other senior government officials after a sentry report charged the two men, among top government officials, of corruption charges.
This week, The Sentry, a research body of the U.S based Enough Project urged Kenya, Uganda and the US to investigate and seize corruption proceeds from South Sudan that have been invested in real estates in the region.
In a press conference held in Nairobi, the US official said the Treasury department of her country will impose sanctions on individuals found to have engaged in advancing the war in South Sudan through money laundering.
“We will impose consequences, we will cut off your access to the U.S financial systems, and we will work with our partners in this region and elsewhere to do the same,” she warned.
The Sentry has identified properties in Nairobi and Kampala in the possession of South Sudanese current and former officials in a report last year and said members of the South Sudan’s government are profiting from the war.
Enough Project’s Co-Founder, John Prendergast says it is in the interest of Kenya and Uganda to locate, investigate, and — if warranted — seize these properties:
“If Kenya is seen by the international financial community as the regional destination for the proceeds of corruption in South Sudan, it risks serious damage to its image as a safe place for multinational banks to do business.”
According to U.S officials, the United States Treasury Department could declare the purchase of real estate outside South Sudan by government-connected elites to be a primary money-laundering concern.
Last year, the department sanctioned current and former government officials, and business persons by freezing their assets that may be within the U.S. jurisdictions, ban them from traveling to the U.S. and bar Americans from doing business with them
