Just in: US charges Mozambique officials with taking $200Mln bribes In $2bln fraud – Justice Dept.

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Just in: US charges Mozambique officials with taking $200Mln bribes In $2bln fraud – Justice Dept.

8:22 CAT | 08 Mar 2019

Assistant US Attorney General Brian Benczkowski . File photo: CNN

Three former officials in the Mozambique government, two shipbuilding executives and three former London investment bankers have been charged in a $2 billion fraud and money laundering scheme that resulted in payments of $200 million in bribes, according to an indictment unsealed by the Department of Justice.

“The indictment unsealed today alleges a brazen international criminal scheme in which corrupt Mozambique government officials, corporate executives and investment bankers stole approximately $200 million in loan proceeds that were meant to benefit the people of Mozambique,” Assistant US Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said in a press release on Thursday.

The $200 million in bribe and kickback payments were related to three loans totaling more than $2 billion that were marketed and sold to US investors, the release said.

Among the charged is Mozambique’s former Finance Minister Manuel Chang, 63, with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The South African authorities arrested Chang last December on the request of the United States with an intent to be extradited.

Participants in the scheme conspired to defraud investors by misrepresenting how the loan proceeds would be used, the amount and maturity dates of other loans, the debt Mozambique was obligated to pay, and the ability of Mozambique to repay the loans, the release explained.

Source: UrduPoint News / Sputnik