UN investigators estimate that exiled president Charles Taylor stole at least $100 million in government funds in the last four years. It was no secret that Taylor was grabbing everything he could, including most of the receipts from Liberia's lucrative ship registration service. This kind of theft is fairly typical of African dictators, except that in Taylor's case, investigators got their hands on government records and were able to detail the thefts. Taylor spent much of the money on maintaining his close followers and bands of gunmen that passed for the Liberian army.