Mozambique: Renamo disrupts President's State of the Nation Address - Watch
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The United States of America (USA) has accused Mozambique of “pursuing” the extradition of Manuel Chang to protect former President Armando Guebuza and senior officials of the ruling party, suspected of having received US$150 million in ‘kickbacks’.
“The United States has evidence that US$150 million US dollars [€138.1 million] in kickbacks went to Mozambican public officials, including US$10 million to the Frelimo party in Mozambique and US$60 million to former president Armando Guebuza and his son,” the US submission for the extradition of the former Mozambican finance minister reads.
The request, to which Lusa had access, was recently sent by the U.S. Department of Justice to the South African Minister of Justice.
“Therefore, the United States is concerned that Mozambique is pursuing the extradition of [Manuel] Chang to possibly protect high-level members of the Frelimo party,” the document, dated February 27, 2020, suggests.
In addition to these amounts, in submitting to Minister Ronald Lamola, in reaction to Mozambique’s new request for the extradition of its former minister, detained in South Africa for about three years, the US underlines that the US police authorities “legally obtained hundreds of bank documents” from US banks and emails between the co-conspirators, detailing the fraud.
“These bank records and emails contain evidence of the bribes and commissions Chang received for his participation in the scheme,” the US submission says.
The US government points out that on October 17, 2013, one of Manuel Chang’s co-conspirators discussed “the need for manufactured invoices to distribute bribe money to government officials”, including “consulting fees” for “Pantera (Chang)” in the order of US$5 (€4.6 million).
“On October 20, 2013, three days after Chang’s co-conspirators discussed paying US$5 million for his participation in the scheme, bank records show a US$1.5 million wire transfer [€1.382 million] through the Eastern District of New York to a bank account in Spain that received Chang’s bribes”, the document reads.
“Around or on November 11, 2013, bank records show another US$1.5 million bank transfer through the Eastern District of New York to the same bank account in Spain. Around or on December 4, 2013, the bank records show another transfer of US$2 million to the same bank account in Spain,” it adds.
In the submission to the South African minister, the US Department of Justice states that Manuel Chang “understood that the [hidden debt] loans would be sold to investors around the world.”
Other members of the conspiracy, including Pearse and Singh, helped to ‘repackage’ higher-priced resale loans to investors around the world, including the United States, “by misrepresenting the nature of the original loans”.
Washington notes some of Chang’s co-accused, detained by the American authorities and including Andrew Pearse, Surjan Singh and Datelina Subeva, had “already pleaded guilty to some of the charges against them”.
“Pearse and Singh have agreed to cooperate with the United States law enforcement authorities and will be available to testify at any trial. Although one of the defendants, Jean Boustani, proceeded with a trial by a jury and was acquitted on December 2, 2019, this does not reflect the sufficiency of evidence against [Manuel] Chang,” the text sent to Pretoria reads.
“In summary, evidence from the United States shows, among other things, that Chang, who signed the loan guarantees [of public companies] Proindicus, Ematum and MAM on behalf of Mozambique, secretly received millions of dollars to do so,” it stresses.
The US Government also claims to have been harmed by “significant criminal conduct” in the Mozambican ‘hidden debts’ scheme, because “virtually all banking activity was done through the US banking system; US investors were solicited and invested millions of dollars in loans and the co-conspirators went to New York to meet with investors and promote a debt swap that promoted, among other things, fraud”.
“Although Mozambique is interested in this fraud scheme, as a guarantor for a loan of US$2 billion [€ 1.842 billion] that the United States indicted as having been obtained fraudulently, prosecutors can, in a trial in the USA, seek to guarantee a significant refund,” the document claims.
The United States further argues that “these factors are favourable to the approval of the United States’ extradition request over any request made by Mozambique”, recalling that they “were the first” to complete their criminal investigation and submit a formal request to South Africa for the extradition of the former-minister and current top cadre of the Mozambique Liberation Front, the party in power since 1975 in Mozambique.
“Formal criminal charges and arrest warrants were issued against Chang and his co-defendants in the United States on December 19, 2018,” the document emphasises.
The United States notes that it was only after news of Chang’s arrest in South Africa that Mozambique submitted a concurrent extradition request.
“Chang was not fleeing Mozambique. He was present and at liberty in Mozambique before travelling to South Africa without pending criminal charges,” the document emphasises, adding that the former minister, through his lawyers, had asked to be “transferred” to Mozambique.
US officials say that, although there is no extradition treaty with Mozambique, “the United States can deport Chang back to Mozambique to stand trial in Mozambique after criminal proceedings in the US are completed”.
“On the other hand, if Chang were first repatriated to Mozambique, it is known to the United States that Mozambican law prevents the extradition of its nationals and, therefore, it would not be possible for Mozambique to hand over Chang to the United States,” the Department of Justice maintains.
Manuel Chang, who was finance minister for the second term of President Armando Guebuza between 2010 and 2015, has been detained in South Africa since December 29, 2018, at the request of US justice organs, for alleged fraud, corruption and money laundering money in what the US deems an international fraud worth about US$2.2 billion (about two billion Euros) – the so-called ‘hidden debts’ case.
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