MONROVIA – In January, RAC Included, a mining agency owned by Randy Scott, who was concerned in Liberia’s largest mining scandal in Gbarpolu, acquired a gold-exploration license for Lofa County. The three-year license covers 210.76 sq. kilometers within the Zorzor and Salayea Districts.
By James Harding Giahyue, with The DayLight
However what the Ministry of Mines and Power apparently didn’t discover was that a minimum of one in all RAC’s paperwork was pretend. A DayLight desk evaluation discovered over a dozen inconsistencies on RAC’s enterprise registration certificates, starting from dates to markings.
RAC’s precise certificates was issued on August 1, 2023, and expired on July 26, 2024, in line with the Enterprise Registry’s information. It has not been renewed. RAC was first registered on March 31, 2021, about the identical time it was based, in line with the corporate’s enterprise registration certificates and articles of incorporation, and was enrolled on the Liberia Enterprise Registry. An official itemizing of all the businesses Mr. Scott owns or co-owns revealed RAC’s certificates certainly expired on Independence Day final yr and had but to be renewed.
The doc RAC filed with the Ministry of Mines claims it was initially registered with the Enterprise Registry on July 30, 2024. It was a pink flag as a result of the knowledge contradicted the Enterprise Registry’s information. Furthermore, the Ministry of Mines’ information present that RAC’s operations date again to 2022, additional proof that RAC couldn’t have initially registered in 2024.
The doc in query signifies that RAC’s enterprise registration ran from July 30, 2024, to July 23, 2025. That is inconsistent with certificates issued by the Enterprise Registry. Usually, certificates, that are issued in July, expire in June the next yr.
The doc identifies the corporate as “leasing and renting of motor autos.” This description omits mining and quarrying, RAC’s fundamental scope of enterprise. Additionally omitted is the Liberian seal, which is an important characteristic on recognized samples of legitimate enterprise registration certificates.
A tax identification quantity—distinctive to a taxpayer—seems on the top-right nook of legitimate certificates. Nonetheless, RAC has that element within the physique of the doc. It even repeats the corporate’s enterprise registration quantity, which, like a taxpayer identification quantity, seems solely as soon as on legitimate certificates.
Typically, the doc in query accommodates extra wording than actual enterprise registration certificates. Probably the most telling is a line on the backside of the doc that reads: “This certificates is proof of registration by enterprise department/subsidiary as a taxpayer and employer.” The clause is exclusive to RAC, as legitimate certificates don’t include that line, suggesting that RAC deployed it to deceive the Ministry of Mines —and it labored.
Forging a doc is against the law underneath the Minerals and Mining Law of Liberia, with a nice between US$1,000 and US$2,000, or a two or three-month jail time period after a court docket course of.
‘Go [and] sue me’
The investigation is a follow-up to an preliminary publication, which established that RAC Included had been issued the exploration license with an expired enterprise registration certificates. It had additionally discovered that RAC and Gee Mining Sources Ltd., its affiliate, have been concerned in unlawful mining in River Gee County. The proof established that RAC signed an MoU with native individuals, whereas Gee Mining performed the mining. Satellite tv for pc imagery confirmed that Gee Mining operated over 1,000 meters exterior the nearer of its two claims.
The DayLight has written Minister Wilmot Paye about RAC’s forgery and unlawful mining actions in River Gee, and the regulator has contacted the Enterprise Registry to confirm the doc.
Confronted with proof of the pretend doc, Scott sounded unbothered. “You probably have proof that my doc is pretend, go and sue me,” he mentioned in a cellphone interview. “Are you aware a pretend doc?” Scott holds 95 p.c of RAC’s shares, whereas one Moses Luther holds the remaining shares, in line with the corporate’s articles of incorporation.
This isn’t the primary time Mr. Scott, who co-owns and is linked to a number of firms, has been concerned in unlawful mining actions. Final July, he and several other Chinese language nationals have been indicted in Liberia’s largest mining scandal, valued at US$48.8 million. Earlier, the Environmental Safety Company fined J.M. Mining, one other of Mr. Scott’s firms, US$95,000 for working and not using a allow. Earlier than that, City and Rural Companies Inc., to which he’s related, operated with an expired license.
Integrity Watch Liberia supplied funding for this story. The DayLight, which first published the story, maintained editorial independence over its content material.
