February 15, 2024
MONROVIA – An anonymous source within the National Lottery Authority (NLA) of Liberia leaked documents that show only weeks before the inauguration of His Excellency President Joseph N. Boakai, a letter of intent was sent to NLA requesting a casino license and an alleged quick process of approval commenced.
Facing an uncertain future after the defeat of then President George Weah, the tenured Director General of NLA, Mr. Reginald Kpan Nagbe, allegedly began the process to issue a casino license to Platinum Entertainment Incorporated just prior to the change of Administration.
On January 11th, 2024, Ms. Vivian Tan of Platinum Entertainment sent a letter of intent to Mr. Nagbe expressing interest in obtaining a license stating that Platinum Entertainment “has the necessary experience and expertise” needed, unfortunately Platinum Entertainment did not legally exist in the Republic of Liberia until its filing date on January 18th 2024.
Both documents, along with others, in the possession of Frontpage Africa uncover that between January 11th when the initial letter was sent to NLA and mid-January, Platinum has paid fees for its license as well as deposited the required $100,000.00 in its bank account. Unfortunately, again for NLA and Platinum, the Lottery law requires that for an initial application, the applicant must present its bank statements for the PRECEDING month which would be impossible because Platinum did not exist the preceding month.
The Lottery law also requires board approval of an application which would indicate that the NLA board met between January 11th and the 15th and would be in contradiction to the transfer of power protocols.
Platinum Entertainment is owned 85% by Jinlong Qi, the Chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce and 15% by Nancy Nyeswah who we learned may be closely related to Ernest Nyeswah Sr., a long-standing member of Senator Nathanial McGill’s entourage and appointed by then Minister of State McGill as his Technical Advisor at the Ministry of State.
Although not yet substantiated, our source tells us that Platinum intends to open its casino at the Ocean Drive Beach Resort which is only a few blocks from an existing Liberian owned casino.
