Illicit import racket costs Mozambique over 18 million dollars – AIM report

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Illicit import racket costs Mozambique over 18 million dollars – AIM report

6:59 CAT | 17 Jan 2022

File photo: Noticias

The Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office announced on Monday that it has uncovered a racket whereby customs exemptions worth 18.6 million US dollars were illicitly issued to import goods supposedly for the benefit of people displaced from their homes by terrorist raids in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Key to the scheme was an assistant to a customs clearance agent who submitted requests for exemption from customs duties for the import of second hand clothes and printed fabrics that would be donated to the victims of terrorism.

But in reality the exemption documents were not used to benefit any displaced people in Cabo Delgado. Instead, they were used to import a wide range of goods, including vehicles, without paying the duties owing on them.

This network of corruption, the prosecutors said, included senior customs staff, customs clearance agents, and business people of Indian, Pakistani and Lebanese origin.

The members of this network defrauded the Mozambican state of 1.209 billion meticais (over 18 million dollars at the current exchange rate). They invested the money in shops, vehicle sales stands, luxury cars, and the building of hotels, condominiums and tourism resorts.

Prosecutors have now confiscated some of the cars and other assets acquired, and some of the remaining money.

The note says that charges have been laid against the suspects, but does not name any of them.

Source: AIM