US prosecutors on Tuesday accused former Mozambique Finance Minister Manuel Chang of taking $7 million in bribes in a “corrupt” scheme to enrich himself and deceive investors, Law360 reported..
According to the portal, which specializes in legal matters, the prosecutors’ statements were made in New York, at the opening of Manuel Chang’s trial over his role in the case of Mozambique’s hidden debts.
During the opening statements, uA prosecutor told the jury that Chang was a “corrupt foreign official who abused his authority to enrich himself through bribery, fraud and money laundering.”accusing him of a conspiracy to divert funds from Mozambique’s efforts to protect and expand its natural gas and fishing industries.
Three deals cost $622 million (€568.8 million) to fund coastal surveillance, $855 million (€781.7 million) for a fleet of tuna fishing boats and $535 million (€489.3 million) for shipyard projects, according to attorney Peter Cooch – quoted by Law360 – stressing that investors lost millions of dollars because “the projects were a failure” and Mozambique did not comply with the loans.
Cooch said officials at shipbuilding company Privinvest knowingly agreed to “a corrupt deal” in which Chang would help them secure the massive contracts “for a price.”
Evidence at trial will include documentation of bribes and wire transfers to a Swiss bank account controlled by a friend of Chang’s, the prosecutor explained.
“The defendant was so careful that he tried to avoid leaving a paper trail,” but his co-conspirators “were not so careful” and documented their crimes, Cooch said.
Chang has been held in New York since July 2023 after being extradited from South Africa.
The former Mozambican minister, who is accused of conspiracy to commit fraud and involvement in a money laundering scheme, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
The United States Government (USA) argues that the Integrated Monitoring and Protection System (SIMP) project for the Mozambican maritime space, which gave rise to the hidden debts, was not designed by the Mozambican Government nor conceived to protect Mozambique’s maritime space.
The indictment says it is a “front project created by the defendants and co-conspirators to make money.”
“In reality, the Proindicus, EMATUM and MAM offshore projects were used by defendant Manuel Chang and his co-conspirators to divert portions of the loan proceeds to pay millions in bribes to themselves, other Mozambican government officials and bankers,” the US Department of Justice argued.
“In connection with their fraudulent scheme, the co-conspirators relied on the U.S. financial system, among other things, to seek out and secure investors and potential investors physically present in the United States,” the document adds.
According to the indictment, the “co-conspirators diverted part of these amounts (from loans) to make payments of bribes and commissions, using the North American financial system with transactions through bank accounts in the United States, including at least five million dollars (4.6 million euros) to the defendant Manuel Chang through the Eastern District of New York”.
At the start of the trial, Chang’s lawyers told the jury that the government has no evidence to prove that Chang received “a single cent” of the alleged $7 million (6.4 million euros) in bribes or that he conspired with anyone to violate the law.
Chang’s lawyer, Adam Ford, argued that investors lost money because “that’s what happens” when you make “risky” investments in emerging markets, not because of anything his client did.
The former Finance Minister rejects all accusations and points to the current President, Filipe Nyusi, who was then Defense Minister, as being the one who ordered him to sign the bank guarantees that made the hidden debts possible.
Chang was Mozambique’s finance minister during the government of Armando Guebuza, between 2005 and 2010, and is said to have guaranteed debts of 2.7 billion dollars (2.5 billion euros) secretly contracted in favor of EMATUM, Proindicus and MAM, public companies mentioned in the US indictment, allegedly created for this purpose in the maritime security and fisheries sectors, between 2013 and 2014.
The loan mobilization was organized by Russia’s Credit Suisse and VTB banks.
The loans were secretly guaranteed by the Frelimo Government, led by the President of the Republic at the time, Armando Guebuza, without the knowledge of parliament or the Administrative Court.
After opening statements at the trial in New York, Andrew Pearse, the former European head of Credit Suisse’s Global Financing Group, who pleaded guilty in 2019 to the same alleged scheme and has not yet been sentenced, was called to the stand.
“I committed conspiracy to commit wire fraud,” Pearse told the jury, as quoted by Law360, noting that he received millions in illegal payments from Privinvest and to ensure that the settlement went to Credit Suisse.
“In total I received $45 million (€41.1 million),” Pearse said.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
