The Monday, August 14, 2023 edition of the News Dawn Newspaper carried a story on its front page with a headline “Boakai’s Moneyman Pleads Guilty”.
The story carrying no byline, but its first paragraph claims that Stanton Witherspoon, owner of Spoon Network, has pleaded guilty of the indictment against him in a US Court of Florida.
Witherspoon and more than two dozen individuals were in January 2023 indicted by the Southern District of Florida for allegedly participating in a wire fraud scheme by creating illegal licensing and employment shortcuts for aspiring nurses.
What We Found
The first paragraph of the article states: “Law-abiding Liberians may have to wait much longer for the dutiful second press release of UP Flagbearer, Joseph Boakai as his moneyman and campaign financier, Stanton Witherspoon changes his plea to guilty”.
However, in the second paragraph, there’s a contradicted with the headline and the first paragraph: “Mr. Witherspoon is expected to change his not guilty plea he entered earlier to guilty as he is being scheduled for hearing on August 24” this year.
We also contacted the newspaper and the editor responded by saying that the article was an opinion by Isaac Jackson – a former deputy minister for information Minister for press and public Affairs.
The newspaper shared a screenshot of a document with LVL Fact Checking Desk claiming it was obtained from Mr. Jackson and that he asserted it was a submission by Mr. Witherspoon to the court for a plead of guilty. However, the screenshot of the document sent to our fact checker is unreadable due to the blurriness of the texts.
We also found the same article published in the New Dawn and the screenshot the paper shared with us on the Facebook page of Mr. Jackson. iVerify Liberia also inquired about the source of the document and further details, but Mr. Jackson did not respond.
We will update this report once we get response from Mr. Jackson.
We also found a May 15, 2023 press release on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Florida – Department of Justice which reads that “five of dozens of defendants charged in the Southern District of Florida for their alleged participation in a scheme that created an illegal licensing and employment shortcut for aspiring nurses have pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy”.
A review of the press release did not find the name of Mr. Witherspoon amongst the five indictees who have pleaded guilty to the crime.
Those who pleaded guilty are Krystal Lopez and Damian Lopez (both of Palm Beach County, Fla.); Francois Legagneur (of Nassau County, N.Y.), Reynoso Seide (of Union County, N.J.); and Yelva Saint Preux (of Suffolk County, N.Y.)
Local Voices Liberia also emailed the Southern District Court of Florida on August 14, 2023 inquiring about the status of ongoing trail involving the U. S v Witherspoon et al.
The court replied on August 16, 2023 stating that “the court has set a change of plea hearing for defendant Stanton Witherspoon”.
In a court notice shared with Local Voices Liberia Fact Checking Desk, on August 8, 2023 a notice was entered as to Stanton Witherspoon, Rene Bernadel for a change of plea hearing that is set for August 24, 2023 in the Forth Lauderdale Division before Judge Rodney Smith.
Conclusion
Based on the evidence gathered during our fact check, we conclude that the claim that Stanton Witherspoon has plead guilty in the US Court as stated in the article written by Mr. Isaac Jackson and published by the New Dawn newspaper is a wrong context of the situation. Although a request has been made to the court, the hearing has not yet been held or granted.
Editor’s Note: This report was updated following the reply from the court concerning our inquiry about the change of plea claim published in the article
Local Voices Liberia, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, has implemented the iVerify Liberia system with the objective of strengthening capacities to address threats to information integrity, especially in view of the upcoming 2023 elections, to ensure all Liberian citizens have access to credible, reliable and verified information, everywhere and at all times.
This initiative is funded by Irish Aid, Embassy of Sweden in Monrovia, European Union Delegation in Liberia and the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund. The donors have no say in the production of this fact check report.
Just a reminder, it is time to do a retraction on this story.