Monrovia, Liberia – Margibi County Senator Nathaniel McGill has failed in his effort to have the United States remove him from its Global Magnitsky sanctions list, with U.S. authorities maintaining that his return to public office and unresolved questions about his business interests remain significant concerns.
The decision by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) leaves McGill under sanctions first imposed in August 2022, when he was serving as Minister of State for Presidential Affairs under former President George Manneh Weah.
According to an April 11, 2025 OFAC determination cited in Liberian reporting, U.S. authorities concluded that McGill had not demonstrated that the circumstances surrounding his original designation had sufficiently changed to justify his removal.
One of the central issues identified by OFAC was McGill’s return to elected office.
The Treasury Department reportedly determined that his election to the Liberian Senate placed him once again in a position of public trust, creating what U.S. authorities considered continued potential exposure to corruption.
OFAC also raised concerns over McGill’s failure to provide business records that he had indicated would be submitted as part of his request for reconsideration.
Questions were additionally raised over an apparent inconsistency between his description of his government authority and the contents of his resignation letter from the former government.
The decision means McGill remains on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.
OFAC’s current sanctions records continue to identify McGill under the Global Magnitsky program.
For U.S. persons and entities, the designation generally means that property and interests in property belonging to the sanctioned individual that come within U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, while transactions involving the designated person are generally prohibited unless authorized.
The sanctions stem from allegations made by the U.S. Treasury in 2022.
At the time, Treasury accused McGill of involvement in multiple forms of public corruption, including allegedly accepting bribes and kickbacks, manipulating procurement processes and directing government contracts toward companies in which he allegedly had interests. Treasury also accused him of misappropriating public resources and using his government position to facilitate corrupt activity.
Those allegations were not a criminal conviction by a Liberian or U.S. court, but formed the basis for the U.S. government’s sanctions action under Executive Order 13818, which implements the Global Magnitsky framework targeting serious corruption and human rights abuses.
McGill’s return to political office has therefore become a key factor in the continuing sanctions dispute.
The senator has faced separate scrutiny in Liberia in connection with allegations arising from his period as Minister of State. In 2024, he withdrew a Supreme Court writ that had sought to halt a Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission investigation into alleged payroll padding at the Ministry of State.
In March 2026, however, the LACC cleared McGill in that separate payroll investigation, saying its review found no probable cause to pursue criminal charges.
That clearance has not resulted in his removal from the U.S. sanctions regime.
The distinction is significant because OFAC’s decision concerns the circumstances underlying the U.S. designation rather than simply whether McGill has been cleared in a separate Liberian investigation.
McGill retains the option to seek reconsideration, but any renewed application would require new evidence capable of addressing the concerns raised by OFAC.
For now, his election to the Liberian Senate has not persuaded U.S. authorities that the concerns associated with his original designation have disappeared.
The decision leaves the Margibi senator facing continued international financial restrictions more than four years after Washington first imposed sanctions against him.
