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According to Bloomberg news agency, the trial of former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang over his role in the case of Mozambique’s hidden debts begins today in New York, USA.
An anti-corruption non-governmental organisation, Mozambique’s Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), which has been following the case, had previously said that Manuel Chang would begin his trial on 29 July, coinciding with the campaign period for Mozambique’s general elections, scheduled for October.
However, the financial news agency Bloomberg reports that Chang will face the start of his trial on Monday without revealing sources.
Chang has been imprisoned in New York since July 2023 after being extradited from South Africa.
The former Mozambican minister, who is accused of conspiracy to defraud and involvement in a money laundering scheme, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
The US government argues that the Integrated Monitoring and Protection System (SIMP) project for Mozambique’s maritime space, which gave rise to the hidden debts, was not conceived by the Mozambican government or designed to protect Mozambique’s maritime space.
The prosecution says it is a “front project created by the defendants and co-conspirators to make money”.
“In reality, the Proindicus, EMATUM and MAM maritime projects were used by defendant Manuel Chang and his co-conspirators to divert portions of the loan proceeds to pay millions in bribes to themselves, other Mozambican government officials and bankers,” argued the US Department of Justice.
“In connection with their fraudulent scheme, the co-conspirators relied on the US financial system, among other things, to seek out and secure investors and potential investors physically present in the United States,” the document adds.
Also according to the indictment, the “co-conspirators diverted part of these (loan) amounts to make payments of bribes and commissions, using the US financial system through transactions through bank accounts in the United States, including at least $5 million (€4.6 million) to the defendant Manuel Chang through the Eastern District of New York”.
According to Mozambique’s CIP, the former finance minister rejects all the accusations and points to 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 under Armando Guebuza 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 mentioned in the US indictment, allegedly created for this purpose in the maritime security and fisheries sectors between 2013 and 2014.
The Russian banks Credit Suisse and VTB organised the loans’ mobilisation.
The loans were secretly endorsed by the Frelimo government, led by the president of Moambique at the time, Armando Guebuza, without the knowledge of parliament or the Administrative Court.
