Government spokesman Filimão Suaze said that the Executive is totally exempt from convicting Manuel Chang, and others who are involved in the crimes of conspiracy to commit money laundering and bank fraud, as this is a matter for a judicial forum, the Agência de Informação de Moçambique reported this Tuesday, 20 August.
The source, who is also Deputy Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, was speaking after the 26th ordinary session of the Council of Ministers, which took place today (20) in Maputo.
‘We are also going to monitor and when we are called upon to intervene, as a government, we will be able to speak,’ said Filimão Suaze, when asked to comment on the conviction of the former president.
About ten days ago, the New York court found the former finance minister guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering and bank fraud.
The trial arose from the ‘Hidden Debts’ scandal, a term that refers to the undeclared loans of more than 139 billion meticals (2.2 billion dollars) taken out in 2013 and 2014 from the Russian banks Credit Suisse and VTB by three companies, namely Proíndicus, Empresa Moçambicana de Atum (EMATUM) and Mozambique Asset Management (MAM).
he Privinvest group, based in Abu Dhabi, was the only one that initialled the contract with the three companies and sold fishing boats, radar stations and other assets at extremely inflated prices, and in order to win the contracts, the same group bribed Mozambican bankers and officials, including Manuel Chang.
The former finance minister allegedly received 442.4 million meticals (seven million dollars) from Privinvest, and the prosecution argued that this was decisive in securing his support for the three companies.
However, the governor of the Bank of Mozambique confirmed that Manuel Chang had returned the amount to the state coffers.
The loan guarantees were all signed by the former ruler, although he must have known that they were illegal.
The national budget laws of 2013 and 2014 set a ceiling for the amount of loan guarantees the state could provide, and those of EMATUM, Proíndicus and MAM exceeded the ceiling.
Manuel Chang’s defence lawyers insisted that he did not accept bribes from Privinvest. With the former finance minister found guilty, the next step is for the judge in the case to determine an appropriate sentence.
According to the US Department of Justice, the former ruler could face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for each of the two offences.
