Extradition from Liberia—Wilma Bailey and Melee Kermue

Two Liberians wanted in United States for money laundering and health care fraud have been turned over to judicial authorities in Monrovia.^[1] According to the US Marshals, Wilma Bailey and Melee Kermue ran a home health care billing company, and submitted bills to Medicaid for services that were never performed.^[2] The money they received went toward vehicles and some of it was sent to Liberia.^[3] The two are wanted in connection to a very large Medicaid scam that totaled more than US$36 million.^[4]

Ms. Bailey (who also goes by the names of Wilma Kpohanu and Wilma Dennis), and Mr. Kermue were arrested in Monrovia on November 10; the arrest was based on a tip-off by the US Marshals.^[5] The extradition proceedings have been quite contentious. On Saturday, Mr. Kermue—who was a failed candidate for Liberia’s Senate—and Ms. Bailey were ordered by a Monrovia City Court to be extradited.^[6] They were then turned over to the Justice Ministry and remanded at the Monrovia Central Prison.^[7] It seems that the two individuals had been issued a writ of habeas corpus by Monrovian Criminal Court Judge James Zotaa, but the Justice Ministry initially “failed to honor the order of the court by not producing the two petitioners in court.”^[8] However, the defendants were eventually turned over to judicial authorities.^[9]

According to the terms of the extradition treaty between the United States and Liberia, both money laundering and fraud are extraditable offenses.^[10] It is unclear whether Ms. Bailey and Mr. Kermue are citizens of Liberia. If they are, Liberia is not bound by the treaty to extradite them to the United States, because Article VIII states that neither country is obligated to extradite its own citizens “except in cases where such citizenship has been obtained after the perpetration of the crime for which extradition is sought.” Nonetheless, the countries are free to do so if they so choose.

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[1] Rodney D. Sieh, U.S. Marshals Awaiting Extradition of Liberians Charged with Money Laundering, FrontPageAfrica, Dec. 8, 2005.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Home Health Care Providers Accused of Bilking Medicaid of $36 Million, Associated Press, Dec. 2, 2005.
[5] Sieh, supra note 1.
[6] Former Senatorial Aspirant Ordered Extradited, The Analyst, Dec. 5, 2005.
[7] Id.
[8] Justice Defies Court? The Analyst, Dec. 7, 2005.
[9] Sieh, supra note 1; Justice Presents Suspects to Court A, The Analyst, Dec. 8, 2005.
[10] Extradition Treaty, Nov. 1, 1937, U.S.-Liber., art. II, para. 18, 9 Bevans 589.