Hidden debts: Provisional freedom for some of those convicted – AIM report

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Hidden debts: Provisional freedom for some of those convicted – AIM report

7:13 CAT | 21 May 2025

File photo: AIM

Several of those convicted of money laundering and other financial crimes in what has become known as the case of the “hidden debts” have been conditionally released, after serving half their prison terms, according to the defence lawyers, cited in Tuesday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”.

Among the first to leave prison on parole was Angela Leão, the wife of Gregório Leão, the former general director of the Intelligence and Security Service (SISE).

SISE was at the heart of the scandal. Working with the Abu Dhabi based group Privinvest, SISE officials set up three fraudulent companies, Proindicus, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management). Privinvest used millions of dollars to bribe Mozambican officials.

Although the companies had no track record, they were able, in 2013 and 2014, to obtain loans of over two billion dollars from the banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia. The loans were only possible because the Mozambican Finance Minister of the time, Manuel Chang, issued illegal guarantees for the full amount of the loans.

This meant that, when the companies went bankrupt, the Mozambican state became liable to repay the full amount. Chang’s guarantees were in flagrant violation of the ceiling on such loans set in the Mozambican budget laws. Chang himself is now serving a prison sentence for wire fraud in a New York jail.

Cipriano Mutota, the former head of the SISE Studies Office, left his prison cell last Thursday. The Maputo City Law Court had found that he took bribes of 980,000 dollars from Privinvest, and sentenced him to a ten year prison term.

On Friday, Fabião Mabunda was released. He was a close associate of Gregorio and Angela Leão. The court found that, in their names, he had received 8.9 million dollars from Privinvest. He was sentenced to 11 years.

All those sentenced in the Hidden Debts case, have appealed, but those appeals have yet to be heard.

Source: AIM