Hidden debts | Verdict and sentence: 6 December, 2022 – AIM report

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Hidden debts | Verdict and sentence: 6 December, 2022 – AIM report

8:25 CAT | 07 Dec 2022

Screen grab; Miramar

Hidden debts: Accused used forged documents

Ndambi Guebuza, the oldest son of Mozambique’s former President, Armando Guebuza, acquired fake identity and residence documents for the United Arab Emirates, so that he could open a bank account in Abu Dhabi.

On the sixth day of reading out his verdict in the case of Mozambique’s “hidden debts”, judge Efigenio Baptista explained why Ndambi Guebuza, and his associates Teofilo Nhangumele and Bruno Langa, are facing charges of using false documents.

They needed bank accounts in Abu Dhabi, so that the Abu Dhabi based company Privinvest could deposit the multi-million dollar bribes it had promised them. But no Abu Dhabi bank would open an account for them without proof that the were legitimately employed and resident in the country.

The three Mozambicans handed over their passports to Privinvest officials, who ensured that they were issued with residence permits, work cards, and health insurance cards. The work cards claimed that they were employed by Privinvest and were engineers, although none of them had any engineering qualifications.

Once the accounts were opened in Abu Dhabi banks, the bribe money began to flow in. Privinvest had agreed to pay bribes of 50 million US dollars – 7.5 million each for Nhangumele and Langa, and 33 million for Ndambi.

Ndambi was paid so much more because he was regarded as the channel through which his father, President Guebuza, could be reached. For months, Privinvest’s attempts to sell a coastal protection scheme to Mozambique had stagnated – the project, Baptista noted, only advanced after Ndambi Guebuza had spoken with his father.

For three months, when the coastal protection scheme was in the hands of the Mozambican security service (SISE), nothing happened. Then Nhangumele persuaded Langa to contact his friend Ndambi, and everything changed.

Baptista noted that, within three weeks of Ndambi speaking to his father, the Mozambican side was won over, and the Privinvest scheme was described as in Mozambique’s national interest.

Privinvest signed consultancy contracts in January 2012 with Nhangumele, Langa and Ndambi, but these were just as fake as the residence permits.

“There was never any intention of employing them in consultancy work”, said Baptista, “The sole purpose of these documents was to open Abu Dhabi Bank accounts. They were never resident in Abu Dhabi, and were never employed by Privinvest”.

The initial instalment of the bribes for Langa and Nhangumele were 5.1 million dollars each, sent from Abu Dhabi to their Mozambican accounts. The rest of the 8.5 million dollars was sent in two further instalments.

Ndambi preferred to receive his share of the bribe money in South Africa, and so millions of rands were sent from his Abu Dhabi account to a variety of South African companies, from which he purchased real estate and luxury cars. The Maputo court has details of all these purchases, which Baptista regarded as clear examples of money laundering.