Hidden debts: Former Security Chief denies knowledge of investment company – AIM

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Hidden debts: Former Security Chief denies knowledge of investment company – AIM

8:35 CAT | 18 May 2022

File photo: O País

The former general director of the Mozambican Security and Intelligence Service (SISE), Gregorio Leao, on Tuesday once again denied ownership of the company Alaba Investments.

Leao is one of 18 people charged with financial crimes in connection with the scandal of Mozambique’s “hidden debts”.

The Maputo City Court is investigating houses and other assets owned by the suspects. The prosecution has demanded that these assets be seized temporarily: if the accused are found guilty, the assets can be used to pay some of the compensation due to the Mozambican state.

Many of the houses and other properties are owned through companies. Over a month ago, on 13 April, Leao categorically denied that he owns the houses and flats on the prosecution list. He said they belonged to a SISE front company, Alaba, and he had nothing to do with managing them.

On Tuesday, his defence lawyer again asked him what Alaba Investments was, and about his connection with the company. And again Leao said Alaba was a SISE “operational vehicle”, and he had nothing to do with the day-to-day running of the company.

“I can’t say anything more, because the information is classified”, he added. The law governing SISE would not allow him to reveal anything about its operations to the court. Throughout the trial, Leao and other former SISE officers have hidden behind the cloak of “national security” to avoid answering embarrassing questions.

As for the ownership of Alaba, Leao said he did not know who the shareholders were. Nor could he remember who possessed the share certificates. Leao added that all the operational actions of Alaba were controlled by the number two in SISE, the director of economic intelligence and his fellow accused, Antonio Carlos do Rosario.

Tired of his evasive answers, the judge, Efigenio Baptista, warned Leao “We are dealing with serious matters here. This is not a game”.

Leao had avoided any mention of the properties registered in Alaba’s name, even though his name is on the documents setting up Alaba, and it was Leao who had registered the company.

Back in April, a former Alaba director, Bilal Sidat, told the court that originally the company had three shareholders – Leao, the former head of SISE economic intelligence, Antonio Carlos do Rosario, and lawyer Imran Issa. But not long after the company’s foundation, the shares belonging to Rosario and Issa were all transferred to Gregorio Leao, who thus ended up owning 100 per cent of Alaba.

Yet now Leao claimed that he knew nothing about the shares and had never attended a shareholders’ meeting.

“Alaba owned properties, and those properties were sold after you were arrested – just a few days after your arrest”, said Baptista. “They were sold by a cousin of your wife, and your sister-in-law had the keys to the properties”.

But Leao had nothing to say about these damning facts.

Relatives of Angela Leao, Leao’s wife, should have testified in court on Tuesday about their role in selling the Alaba properties – but they were not available. One of them, Nelson Buque, was serving in the armed forces, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, and the other, Olga Buque, had gone missing. She was not at the only address the court had for her, and her phone was switched off.

With no more witnesses to call, Baptista must now decide on the prosecution’s request to seize the properties. He did not set a date for this decision.

Source: AIM