The account of businessman Alagie Conteh allegedly blocked on the orders of the Inspector General of Police has been unblocked, a close person to the Mr Conteh, Momodou Sabally has said.
Mr Conteh appeared in the news on Monday over his account with Bloom Bank allegedly blocked. Some reports suggested it was blocked over money laundering issues.
Momodou Sabally wrote on Tuesday Mr Conteh’s account has now been ‘unfrozen’.
Mr Conteh had told The Standard earlier on: “The money concerned is an advanced payment for a contract I signed with KEI of India, one of five companies that won an Ecowas contract for electrification projects in The Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Mali. Almost all the companies who bid for the project wanted to work with Dabanani because of our experience and record in this type of work. I signed an agreement with my Indian partner KEI that should they win the contract, I will be responsible for installation at a fee of $10 million. So when they eventually got the contract, and because I sensed the politically motivated unfriendly climate towards my company in the Gambia, I made sure we signed a contract for the work proper so that they would not be pressured to dump my company after partnering them to prepare the bidding process. They then asked me to provide a performance bond and an advanced payment bond, both of which I secured from the Bloomberg Bank.
“According to law, banks are obliged to send a report to the FIU whenever a transaction in a corporate account is up to D2 million. My bank did that but normally, if the FIU doesn’t have any problem with the transaction, they don’t even respond. But in this case, at some point, the government took interest and the IGP sent a letter to the bank signed by one Alieu Jawara requesting the bank to provide all information regarding this transaction. And they were even very forceful because somebody came to the bank and said they will not leave until they get all the information which the bank provided.
“Soon after that, the FIU replied to acknowledge receipt of the Bank’s report on our transaction but surprisingly asked the bank to block the account. The bank then told the IGP that they have not seen any problem in the transaction and that even if they are going to block the account, they are only going to do so for ten days as required by law unless they, the police, call me over the matter. And as I speak to you this evening [yesterday], my account remains blocked.”
