Hidden debts: “You can keep your useless boats and planes” – AIM report

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Hidden debts: “You can keep your useless boats and planes” – AIM report

7:00 CAT | 11 Mar 2022

Photo: Domingo

All the boats, planes and other assets supplied by the Abu Dhabi based group Privinvest to the fraudulent Mozambican companies Proindicus, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management) are worthless, declared prosecuting attorney Sheila Marrengula on Thursday, as the case of Mozambique’s “hidden debts” draws towards its close in the Maputo City Court.

Marrengula was replying to attacks made on her over the previous two days by several of the defence lawyers. They were particularly angered by the prosecution demand that the 18 defendants should pay compensation to the state of 2.9 billion US dollars. (The trial started with 19 accused, but the prosecution dropped the charges against one of them).

The lawyers demanded to know how the prosecution had reached the figure of 2.9 billion. After all, even if it was accepted that the defendants had taken bribes from Privinvest, those only amounted to 70 million dollars. Furthermore, all the fishing boats, patrol vessels, radar stations and other assets provided by Privinvest should be discounted against any compensation.

Marrengula replied that the figure was the amount of the loans, backed by illegal state guarantees, granted by the banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia to the three companies (2.07 billion dollars) plus interest.

As for putting the value of the remaining Privinvest assets into the equation, Marrengula retorted “all those assets never brought anything to the Mozambican state. The defendants brought useless goods to the country. Should the Mozambican people pay for those goods?”

But she was prepared to strike a deal. The defendants could take back all the Privinvest assets, provided they paid the 2.9 billion dollar compensation.

“If you want, you can take your useless radars, your useless boats, your useless planes, which are no better than toys”, said Marrengula. “You can take them all, as long as you pay the money”.

The defence lawyers also said the demand for compensation should be divided among the accused, if found guilty, depending on the involvement of each of them in the scheme. Marrengula retorted that the prosecution regarded all the defendants as “jointly and severally responsible for the entire amount”.

Some assets (such as cars and buildings) owned by the defendants had already been seized under the legislation against money-laundering, she said, while other goods had been taken preventively “to ensure that the accused will pay up”.

Marrengula denied that the prosecution had seized land from the defendants, which would have been unconstitutional. But it did take improvements built on the land “which were being used for money laundering purposes”.

She rejected defence claims that this was a political trial and that the Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) had been “politicised and captured”, as lawyer Isalcio Mahanjane, representing several high profile defendants, had put it. She urged the lawyers not to use the trial as a political platform – the only question was: did the defendants commit the crimes, or did they not?

As for the personal attacks made against her and other prosecutors, Marrengula said this is a tactic used when lawyers know they are losing their case. But she noted that by no means all the lawyers went down this road – several opted to give reasons why their clients should be acquitted without insulting Marrengula or the PGR.

Others, however, “decided to attack the public prosecutor and the PGR, as if this would remove the guilt of their clients”.

Marrengula noted that the defence claimed the project to defend the Mozambican Exclusive Economic Zone always included Proindicus, Ematum and MAM. But there was no proof of this. Only Proindicus received a concession from the Mozambican state, and one of the key witnesses, former Interior Minister Alberto Mondlane, said he had no idea of how Ematum and MAM had been set up.

Marrengula added that President Filipe Nyusi, who was defence minister at the time, said the same thing when interviewed by prosecutors during the preliminary investigations. He had chaired the Operational Command of the defence and security forces, and it had never discussed either Ematum or MAM. Lawyers who claimed otherwise “are deceiving public opinion”, she said.

Source: AIM