Sunday, July 15, 2012

Liberia, Diplomatic Immunity and Bounty Money - Facts and Fiction

I introduced Dr. Homm to the Liberian Foreign Ministry in 2003. He has been a great friend of our nation ever since. More than a thousand students have attended his school, the best-equipped and most modern public school in our nation (The Liberian Renaissance Educational complex: www.our-school-liberia.com). After the end of Liberia’s Civil the National Transitional Government appointed Dr. Homm asAmbassador at Large. Dr. Homm helped significantly when Liberia had few supporters, outfitting several ministries with badly needed telecom and computer equipment. After the election, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs underwent a rigorous review. During this restructuring period Ambassador McKinley convinced Dr. Homm to focus exclusively on educational and cultural issues and to help him revive Liberia’s fledgling UNESCO presence. Dr. Homm then became Cultural Attache in Paris and later a member of the permanent delegation of Liberia at UNESCO. After retiring in 2007, he focused on funding and developing our UNESCO effort. With the help of two other sponsors and Liberia’s UNESCO team has raised over four Million US Dollars in funds and services for our nation! I estimate Dr. Homm’s personal contributions and fund raising proceeds around 2.5 million Dollars. He renovated our Paris Embassy. He largely funded the construction of our National Indoor Sports Stadium. He has provided funding for some of our churches, our leading private university and awarded scholarships to some of our most promising students and introduced other powerful sponsors. The FTD alleges he did all this to secure diplomatic immunity and our Ambassador is helping Dr. Homm evade justice? Dr. Homm provided and raised Millions and worked for 9 years for Liberia. Let me tell you. A valid diplomatic passport went for as little as USD 50,000 in the old days. The FTD theory is absurd. Dr. Homm is presently the object of a manhunt paid for by criminals and aided and abetted by the media. Why do I use the word “criminals” in this context? Stripping him of his assets and not turning him over to the authorities constitutes several felonies: unlawful gain, interfering with the course and procedures of justice and profiteering and redirecting fraudulent proceeds, protecting a criminal and so forth. If there is no warrant, the manhunt and media reports constitute slander and incites criminal behaviour such as extortion, blackmail, kidnapping, abduction and constitute severe infringements on Dr. Homm's personal liberties. I believe there is no US arrest warrant for Dr. Homm. Our Foreign Service cooperates closely with America on judicial matters. Without a doubt, the US State and/or Justice Department would have notified us. The American Securities and Exchange Commission is a civil organization. It does not issue arrest warrants. The FTD's assumptions are preposterous. Because of this illicit and public manhunt, underpinned by huge rewards and disseminated uncritically by the media, Dr. Homm must fear for his life. People all over are chasing him. As a direct result he discontinued his very visible work and we lost the largest private donor to our nation! That is a great shame because hundreds of lives may be negatively affected. The media is also to blame, not even questioning the wild accusations regarding Dr. Homm and those directed against a senior and accomplished Liberian diplomat. The FTD insinuation of corruption against our Ambassador are entirely without merit, below the belt and pure juxtaposition. I urge the Financial Times Deutschland to support their insults with facts immediately or else apologize officially to our Ambassador, our people and our nation. So what is with this manhunt? I believe some of the hunters are less interested in money than shutting Dr. Homm up, maybe indefinitely. These alleged investors chasing Dr. Homm had almost five years to pursue him in court. Why did they not? Maybe the ACMH folks (Dr. Homm's former employer) are behind this. The entire mountain of lies spun mostly by former Directors and executives of Absolute Capital Management could collapse like a house of cards if Dr. Homm ever told his side of the story or journalists probed just a little deeper. Most of the senior people knew full well what was going on. They did absolutely nothing about it and later they lied in their official press reports shifting the blame solely on Dr. Homm. While he was there, they condoned unethical and conflicted practices, while they were lining their pockets with Millions, collecting outlandish bonuses, exercising their share options and dumping the stock. Has anyone ever written about this story? No one has, they all believed the guys in charge blindly. These individuals must sleep poorly fearing exposure of their role in this drama. Those who will be exposed may have as much or more to lose than Dr. Homm. They may suffer reputational loss, civil lawsuits, regulatory reviews and penalties and possibly criminal prosecution. Their greatest fear must be that Dr. Homm ever sets the record straight. They may have a keen interest to silence or best case to intimidate Dr. Homm to stay deep under cover until all statutes of limitations expire. There are always two sides to every story. The Florian Homm saga thus far only has one. We also all know secrets never stay buried forever. Maybe one day a more probing, more ethical and less gullible journalist will investigate below the surface or maybe Homm will simply reappear. The truth always rises to the surface. It’s just a question of time.

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