Mozambique: Some road sections in Manica at risk of being cut - report
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The Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office on Friday detained a further three people in connection with the “hidden debts” scandal bringing the total number of people arrested so far to eight.
According to the independent newsheet “Carta de Moçambique”, the three are Sergio Namburete, Elias Moiane and Sidonio Sitoe. All three are believed to have received illicit bank transfers from the Abu Dhabi based company Privinvest. They then distributed the money to others implicated in fraudulent scheme.
Privinvest is at the heart of the scandal and one of its key executives, Jean Boustani, is currently under arrest in New York. He was a key player in the movement, according to US prosecutors, of at least 200 million dollars of bribes and kickbacks, flowing from the illegal loans made by the banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia to the three fraudulent Mozambican companies, Proindicus, EMATUM (Mozambique Tuna Company), MAM (Mozambique Asset Management). Privinvest became the sole contractor for the three companies, providing fishing boats and other assets at vastly inflated prices.
Namburete, said the newsletter, is a businessman closely related with the Mozambican security and intelligence service (SISE). Moiane is a relative of Ines Moiane, the former private secretary of President Armando Guebuza. It is believed that the bank accounts of Moiane and Sidonio Sitoe were used to channel illicit money from the loan proceeds.
Five people were detained the previous day. They are:
1. Gregorio Leao, head of SISE under Guebuza, and sacked by Guebuza’s successor, the current President, Filipe Nyusi. SISE is at the heart of the scandal, dominating the shareholding structure of the three companies. The justification for SISE involvement was that the companies would provide coastal protection services and were thus a matter of national security. In fact no such protection ever materialised and the hydrocarbon exploration companies that were supposed to use these services never expressed any interest in them. Leao answered directly to Guebuza.
2. Antonio do Rosario, former head of economic intelligence at SISE. This SISE officer was appointed chairperson of the board of directors of all three companies. When the Attorney General’s Office ordered an independent audit of Proindicus, EMATUM and MAM, Rosario refused to cooperate. He concealed information from the auditors and at one point he even boasted, in a message widely circulated over the internet, of throwing the auditors out of his office.
3. Teofilo Nhangumele, the only person detained who was not employed by the state. But his connections were important in setting up the first of the corrupt loans, 622 million US dollars for Proindicus. He introduced Jean Boustani to the Mozambican authorities. Prosecutors ordered the seizure of some of his assets, including luxury cars.
4. Ines Moiane former private secretary to Guebuza, who allegedly operated as a conduit for illicit funds.
5. Bruno Tandane, a SISE officer, once reputed to be a close associate of Guebuza’s son, Ndamdi Guebuza.
On Saturday the Maputo City Court began formalising the arrests of the detainees. Under Mozambican legislation a detained person should be brought before a magistrate within 48 hours to validate the detention.
The court building was under heavy security so that no journalists could approach the detainees. It is known that the first person questioned was Rosario. He was represented by lawyer Alexandre Chivale, who has worked for the Guebuza family in the past.
Meanwhile former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang on Friday failed in his attempt to secure bail from the Kempton Park Magistrates Court in Johannesburg. Chang has been under South African police custody since 29 December, on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by the United States authorities, in connection with his role in the hidden debts scandal.
The judge, Sagra Subroyen, denied bail largely because Chang had not told the court the full truth of his financial situation. Subroyen said that last October Chang visited Portugal, but the bank statement he provided showed no expenditure for air tickets, accommodation or food. “We must assume that Chang has other bank accounts or sources of income not revealed to the court“, said the judge.
She described Chang as dishonest and “playing his cards close to his chest”. His omissions and contradictions showed that he could not be trusted. He claimed he had a low income, but his foreign travel and “lavish” lifestyle, which did not appear on bank statements and credit card bills, suggested he had access to suspect money. Subroyen noted that the American indictment accuses Chang of receiving 15 million dollars in bribes, yet his defence lawyer, Rudi Krause, had suggested bail of only 14,000 dollars. The judge dismissed such a sum as “peanuts”.
Krause said Chang will now appeal to the South African Supreme Court in a further attempt to obtain bail. Chang is also due back in court on 26 February or the first hearing on the US request for his extradition. The Mozambican authorities are also requesting Chang’s extradition.
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