Illegal loans in the billions rushed Mozambique in 2016 in a financial crisis. In December, the Ex was arrested-the Minister of Finance of the country. Now he should stand trial in New York.
For almost three years, a financial scandal in Mozambique for excitement: the beginning of 2016, it came to light that the government of Armando Guebuza from 2013 to 2014, issued three semi-state companies, the approval, loans in the amount of two billion US dollars. Supposedly the money should be used for the purchase of tuna boats. However, it was not even fully in the company. A large part of the billion seeped into the earth. In the case of a credit in this amount, the government should have consulted the Parliament – but that was circumvented.
Now several of the alleged organisers of the process is to be made – but not in Mozambique, but in the United States. The Prosecutor’s office in New York has filed charges of money laundering and fraud us investors. Several people, including Mozambique’s Ex-Minister of Finance, three former Bankers from the Swiss Bank, Credit Suisse, as well as a Lebanese business man have already been arrested. In addition, the U.S. Department of justice, determined against the Russian VTB Bank and the French BNP Paribas.
Investigations into the highest levels of government
A great sensation the arrest of Manuel Chang, the Ex-Minister of Finance of Mozambique attracted in December. To have created a “maritime projects as a facade for their own enrichment,” and parts of the loan intentionally redirected, in order to collect bribes and kickbacks in the millions, in the publicly accessible charge that is present in the DW. After a request for assistance, the Americans are looking for Chang was arrested in South Africa.
On 8. January Manuel Chang appeared in Johannesburg to a hearing on his extradition to the United States
But the Ex-Minister of Finance did not act alone, believe the accusers. The leading mastermind of the billion fraud was António Carlos do Rosário, an Agent of the Mozambican intelligence service, SISE, says the investigative Journalist Baltazar Fael from the centre for public integrity (CIP) in the DW-Interview. The extent to which the former state President Guebuza, and the former defense Minister and today’s President Filipe Nyusi had been involved in the financial scandal, has not yet been finally clarified, emphasized Fael. His research indicated, however, that the business without the Knowledge of these two protagonists would hardly have been possible.
Baltazar Fael, legal expert of the CIP
Armando Guebuza was ascended in the time of his presidency, one of the most powerful and richest entrepreneurs in Africa, says Fael. Under the international business people with the nickname “Guebusiness”. It is hard to imagine that anything had come without his Knowledge. And also Nyusis be knowledge is by no means improbable. Part of the money was illegally used for the procurement of weapons. “Who would believe that he knew the former defense Minister of Nothing?”, Baltazar asks Fael. “Who are these two protagonists to be protected?”
Violation of state sovereignty?
In fact, lawyers are to be found in the present indictment of the US government evidence that top officials of the defense Ministry, the interior Ministry and the air force were involved. The then defence Minister and today’s President, Filipe Nyusi, is not mentioned in the indictment explicitly. However, most of the names and addresses are redacted in the document.
The United States has called on South Africa, Manuel Chang. Not all Mozambicans are with the approach of the Americans agree. “I think it would have been at least from a formal point of view better, if the US authorities had previously turned over to our state, to arrest Chang,” says the Mozambican sociologist Elísio Macamo in a DW Interview. “Only if Mozambique had refused to arrest Chang and deliver, would have been justified in a pursuit and arrest in a foreign country.”
Filipe Nyusi, Armando Guebuza, Manuel Chang: who knew what?
“The criminal law expert Elísio de Sousa reminded that the main crime Changs – money laundering in Mozambique is committed. Also the main victims in Mozambique. “In such a case, the Mozambican Jurisdiction should be responsible and not the American,” says de Sousa.
Workup in an election year
The acting President Filipe Nyusi had promised enlightenment, but since known of the scandal in Mozambique, even nothing happens, The “hidden debts” plunged Mozambique into a financial crisis whose effects are still felt today, and the country is in a dramatic situation.
The upcoming process and the arrests of Mozambican civil society hope: The CIP again demanded the immediate suspension of the restructuring of the debts of the companies concerned, Ematum, Proindicus and MAM. There is sufficient evidence that the loans were illegal had been completed, it said. The organization wants to achieve, that the masterminds and the financial scandal of the participating banks will bear the cost and not the Mozambican state.
Also, the government party Frelimo feels, in the meantime, the impact of the controversy. “The party is divided and is increasingly losing the approval,” says Baltazar Fael. The further work-up of the scandal could have consequences in the country: In October, the people of Mozambique to choose a new President and a new Parliament.
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