FIA Slaps Orange GSM Company With 15m Liberian Dollars Fine, Warns The GSM To Pay In Ten Days

The Financial Intelligence Agency has Imposed a Monetary fine of L$15 million Liberian Dollars Against Orange GSM provider Liberia.

The move by the FIA was due to the GSM company’s alleged failure to meet critical and essential AML/CFT requirements as provided by Liberia’s AML/CFT Act of 2021.

 The drastic action by the Intelligence agency followed a full scale inspection scope Risk-based AML/CFT Compliance process.

The report also shows the company’s alleged failure to provide private Liberian investors or Liberian-owned institutions the opportunity to subscribe at least 20% of the capital of OML in violation of Paragraph 5, Section 6 of the Mobile Money Regulation, No. CBL/RSD/003/2014.OML AML/CFT.

While the Policies and Procedures Manual of 2024 the inspection discovered was not updated/revised in line with AML/CFT Act of 2021, AML/CFT Regulations for Financial Institutions in Liberia, REGULATION NO. CBL/RSD/002/2017 and the Corporate Governance Regulation for Financial Institutions, REGULATION NO. CBL/SD/001/2012.

Moreover, the FIA also alleged the lack of an appropriate risk management system in place at OML to classify high risk Customers; PEPs, Money Services Business, Casinos, in particular Full Agents/Merchants who are Cash intensive businesses (Supermarkets, wholesale distributors, Forex Exchange, and Money service businesses).

The report at the same time highlighted the Ineffective system/mechanism at the full Agents/Merchants level, with “Unlimited Transaction Limits/Threshold”, to monitor, detect, and report suspicious transactions, resulting in extremely low Reporting/submission of STR. 

 “Given the significance of weaknesses in the AML/CFT Control Framework and infractions/violations raised in the FIA Risk-based AML/CFT Compliance Inspection Report; the FIA imposes a monetary fine of fifteen million Liberian Dollars (L$15,000,000.00) against Orange Money Liberia (OML) for failing to meet critical and essential AML/CFT requirements as provided by Liberia’s AML/CFT Act of 2021”, the FIA noted.

 In a move to address the situation, going forward, FIA encouraged the GSM provided to develop an action plan with well-defined timelines as part of remediation measures and submit the same to the FIA Monday, June 23, 2025; such action plan must be Approved by the OML Management and Certified by the FIA.

At the same time, FIA, called on Orange to ensure that all appropriate measures are put in place to address all deficiencies identified in the FIA Risk-based AML/CFT Compliance Report and mitigate the risk of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation of Weapon of Mass Destructions no later than September 1, 2025.

Assessing the adequacies of OML AML/CFT Compliance Programs, including policies, procedures, and control, consistent with the full range of the AML/CFT obligations provided by the AML/CFT Act of 2021.

Reviewing OML compliance with the Mobile Money Regulations No. CBL/RSD/003/2014, Corporate Governance Regulations for Financial Institutions No. CBL/RSD/001/2012, CBL Risk Management Guidelines, et al; and

Evaluating the level of Risk inherent with OML’s operations as of September 2, 2024. 

Additionally, major violations identified during the FIA Risk-based AML/CFT Compliance Inspections include the following:

 Limited Board oversight of Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) Risk, in particular, lack of oversight and periodic review of the compliance performance by the Board of Directors (BoDs) with the view of correcting weaknesses, where required.

Potential breach in the confidentiality requirement of processing and reporting Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) by an extended party; CECOM, within another jurisdiction, which contravene section 15.3.22 (2.b).