Embraer / LAM SCANDAL – AIM Report

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Embraer / LAM SCANDAL – AIM Report

7:20 CAT | 05 Dec 2016

Teodoro Waty, a former chairperson of Mozambique Airlines (LAM), has said that he did not notice any irregularities in the management of the company when he took over from Jose Viegas in 2011.

Viegas has been implicated in the scandal of an 800,000 US dollar bribe paid to LAM by the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer in 2009.

Asked by the independent television station STV for his reaction to the scandal, Waty said “Newspapers are not courts, I have no proof that what is said is true. I trust my predecessor. When I was there, I saw no signs of what has been reported”.

Waty seems unaware that the source of the accusation against Viegas is not any media report, but a document signed by Brazilian federal prosecutors and by officials from Embraer itself.

Embraer was accused of bribing officials, not only in Mozambique, but also in India, Saudi Arabia and the Dominican Republic. It reached a settlement both in Brazil and in the United States, which involved paying total fines of around 225 million US dollars, and giving full details of the bribes.

Despite his apparent trust in Viegas, Waty also hoped that prosecutors in Mozambique will investigate the case. “We hope that Mozambican justice plays its role”, he said. “I believe that it will intervene and that it will be impartial, equidistant, just and speedy to clear up what happened”.

A representative of the Mozambican Bar Association (OAM), Filipe Sitoe, told STV “the judicial bodies should do their work, and with full respect for the rights of the suspect”.

A second person named in the Brazilian document is Mateus Zimba, who at the time was the manager in Mozambique for the South African petrochemical giant, Sasol, and is now regional director of the US company, General Electric.

Zimba was allegedly a middleman in the bribe, setting up a fake company, named Xihevele, and registered in Sao Tome and Principe, which received the money from Embraer in an account in Portugal.

The independent newssheet “Mediafax” caught up with Zimba on Thursday at a conference on natural gas held in Maputo’s Joaquim Chissano Conference Centre and tried to ask him about the scandal.

According to Friday’s issue of the paper, Zimba replied “There’s nothing I can say. I have a great deal of respect for your work”.

When the reporter tried to insist, Zimba simply said “Thank you very much”.

Source: AIM