Mozambique: Justice has $7 million returned by Manuel Chang, under PGR custody – Watch

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Mozambique: Justice has $7 million returned by Manuel Chang, under PGR custody – Watch

1:10 CAT | 30 Jul 2024

Screen grab: STV

The Mozambican government said on Tuesday that the Mozambican Attorney General’s Office (PGR) has seen at least US$7 million returned by Manuel Chang, the former Mozambican finance minister currently on trial in the United States in connection with ‘hidden debts’ case.

“Yes, it is confirmed. All the amounts returned in the context of the cases associated with these loans, since the case is ongoing, were channelled and are under the custody of the Attorney General’s Office until the case knows its outcome,” declared Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance Amílcar Tivane in response to a question from the media.

Chang, who has been detained in New York since July 2023 after being extradited from South Africa, is charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and involvement in a money laundering scheme, and faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. He is also the target of other charges related to Mozambique’s ‘hidden debts’ scandal.

At the opening of the trial in the United States on 16 July, US prosecutors accused Mozambique’s former finance minister of having received $7 million in bribes in a ‘corrupt’ plan to enrich himself and cheat investors, legal website Law360 reported at the time.

During opening statements, a prosecutor told the jury that Chang was a “corrupt foreign official who abused his authority to enrich himself through bribery, fraud and money laundering”, and accusing him of conspiring to divert funds from Mozambique’s efforts to protect and expand its natural gas and fishing industries.

Three agreements raised $622 million (€568.8 million) to finance coastal surveillance, $855 million (€781.7 million) for a fleet of tuna fishing boats and $535 million (€489.3 million) for shipyard projects, according to prosecutor Peter Cooch – quoted by Law360 – stressing that investors lost millions of dollars because ‘the projects were a failure’ and Mozambique defaulted on the loans.

The prosecutor explained that evidence at the trial will include documentation of bribes and electronic transfers to a Swiss bank account controlled by a friend of Chang.

Chang rejects all the accusations and indicates the current president, Filipe Nyusi, who was minister of defence at the time, as the one who ordered him to sign the bank guarantees that made the hidden debts possible.

Chang was Mozambique’s finance minister during Armando Guebuza’s mandate, between 2005 and 2010, and is said to have guaranteed debts of $2.7 billion (€2.5 billion) secretly contracted in favour of EMATUM, Proindicus and MAM, public companies in the maritime security and fisheries sectors mentioned in the US indictment, allegedly created between 2013 and 2014 for this purpose.

To cancel debts and claim financial compensation, Mozambique took the case to the British courts, alleging corruption, conspiracy to defraud by unlawful means and dishonest assistance.

The London Commercial Court ruled in Mozambique’s favour on Monday, determining that shipping group Privinvest must pay compensation for corruption by former finance minister Manuel Chang.

The Mozambican Attorney General’s Office said on Tuesday that the country is entitled to approximately $1.9 billion (€1.8 billion) as a result of the judgement.

Source: Lusa / STV