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Hunt is on for warlord Charles Taylor's fortune

For two years, Charles Taylor, the West African warlord and former president of Liberia, has been locked in a Dutch high-security jail, leaving the compound only for his war crimes trial.

But while he is in the dock, the hunt is still on for his legendary missing fortune. Prosecutors say the most exhaustive effort to date is under way to pinpoint the money the former dictator is believed to have amassed by pilfering the coffers of his country and running smuggling operations, particularly of diamonds, deep inside neighboring states.

No money has been seized, but investigators say they have made some breakthroughs recently.

"We have new information that more than US$1 billion passed through Taylor's personal bank accounts between 1997 and 2003 when he was president," said Stephen Rapp, the chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which is trying Taylor at an outpost in The Hague.

The court now has the aid of a London law firm with experience in recovering wealth stolen by dictators and other leaders.

Taylor, 60, has been charged with pillaging, but his hidden accounts and assets are also central to his prosecution on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The prosecutors want to demonstrate how he financed operations that dragged neighboring Sierra Leone into a civil war that lasted more than a decade.

Prosecutors argue that Taylor used stolen millions, including profits from smuggled diamonds, to buy the loyalty, weapons and supplies for rebels in Sierra Leone and other neighboring countries. His indictment holds him accountable for the rebels' barbaric methods, as they pillaged, killed, raped, used children as soldiers and hacked off hands or feet of innocent civilians.

If the international judges' panel finds Taylor guilty of pillaging, the court can seize assets proven to belong to him or his associates and use the money for restitution.

The UN has frozen US$6 million in assets, in the name of Taylor or his associates, in 10 countries.

"It's a start, but it can't be seized until we prove it's Taylor's money," Rapp said.

The London lawyers are enlisting law enforcement agencies to press banks in several financial havens to cooperate, Rapp said, adding that some countries, including the Bahamas and Switzerland, are already helping.

"Enough progress has already been made to show that more can be found," he said.
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