The National Security Agency (NSA) has begun investigating claims from a prostitute that the French ambassador here, Mr. Gerald Larome allegedly solicited her ‘sex services’ without compensations, according to well-placed sources on the issue.

Various media entities who reported the sex scandal are also facing probes at the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) on their roles played in the scandal since the French envoy, through the government of Liberia, had called for an investigation, according to officials at the PUL.

“The investigation is still ongoing, four media entities are expected to face the Union, “PUL president Peter Quaqua confirmed told this paper Monday.

Contacted Monday, NSA officials neither denied nor confirmed the ongoing probe.

“I can’t say yes or no, on whether such case is being investigated by us,” said one NSA agent, who preferred anonymity.

It is now alleged that the scandal was masterminded as a media event to blackmail the ambassador, and that some media entities may have been culprits.

Sources said the report was a “scheme to blackmail” the French envoy and that one of the main masterminds has gone into hiding.

“They paid the school girls to pose at the gate of the French envoy’s residence for a photo under the pretense that they were protesting for money that he had reneged on giving them for alleged sex service.

“The main man who gave the money to the girls is now on the run and the NSA people are hunting for him. He would soon be nabbed,” one of our sources at the French Embassy, said.

Sources also said the ambassador was never contacted to verify the sex claims, and that although some media entities called, no follow-ups were made to get his side of the story.

“It would appear that the story was planted. All newspapers concerned wrote the story in a similar manner and with the same misspelling of the ambassador’s name,” one observer involved in the case told this paper on condition of anonymity.

Ambassador Larome, at a press conference following a frenzy of publications on the alleged scandal, denied the act and swore on the Bible. He regretted that his status as ambassador, under the Geneva Convention, forbids him to file legal suits.