Musings From Abroad

US courts sentence former Mozambican finance minister over “tuna bonds” controversy

Published

3 months ago

August 10, 2024

A former finance minister of Mozambique has been found guilty of federal crimes in the United States due to his involvement in a scam involving $2 billion in loans to three state-owned businesses intended to grow the country’s fishing sector.

After a three-week trial in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, jurors found Manuel Chang guilty of conspiring to commit wire fraud and conspiring to commit money laundering in the “tuna bonds” case.

Reporters were informed outside the courthouse by defendant attorney Adam Ford that Chang intends to appeal the decision.

In exchange for issuing a Mozambique government guarantee for loans to three state firms to expand the African nation’s fishing industry and enhance marine security, the prosecution claims that shipbuilding company Privinvest paid Chang $7 million in bribery.

To hide his tracks, Chang had other Mozambican officials speak with Privinvest about the payoffs after receiving the money in a Swiss bank account managed by a friend, according to the prosecution.

Investors lost millions of dollars when the projects finally failed and the state-backed businesses stopped making loan payments.

A currency crash and financial chaos were caused by the temporary suspension of financing by donors like the International Monetary Fund.

“Today’s verdict is an inspiring victory for justice and the people of Mozambique,” Breon Peace, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn said in a statement.
Peace called Chang “a corrupt, high-ranking government official whose greed and self-interest sold out one of the poorest countries in the world.”

Ford contended that there was no proof the $7 million was meant for Chang and that his client only approved the Mozambican government guarantee because the president of the nation asked him to.

“That money never went to Minister Chang,” Ford said in his closing argument on Monday.

At a 2019 Brooklyn trial, Privinvest salesman Jean Boustani, a co-defendant, was found not guilty when he testified that he was not involved in packaging the loans for investors.
From 2013 to 2016, authorities and bankers allegedly embezzled $200 million of the $2 billion in funding raised for the projects, according to the prosecution.

To settle related bribery and fraud accusations, Britain and the United States received a $475 million payment from Credit Suisse, which was later bought by rival Swiss bank UBS, in 2021.

On July 29, Mozambique prevailed in the majority of its $3.1 billion lawsuit against Emirati-Lebanese Privinvest at London’s High Court. Privinvest was accused of bribing Mozambican authorities and Credit Suisse bankers to obtain favourable conditions.

According to a Privinvest representative, the corporation will file an appeal against the court’s decision that it gave Chang bribes and believes that paying hundreds of millions of dollars in damages would be unjust.

Related Topics:Featured Mozambique Tuna Bond

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Musings From Abroad

Finnish court imprisons Nigeria’s Simon Ekpa for aiding terrorism

Published

5 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian separatist leader based abroad, has been placed under detention by the Päijät Häme District Court in Finland on suspicion of inciting others to commit acts of terrorism.

According to the local daily, Helsingin Sanomat, the court rendered the ruling on Thursday following his arraignment by the Central Criminal Police for his involvement in the terror attacks that have afflicted the southeast area of Nigeria.

“The police suspect that the man has promoted his efforts from Finland with means that have led to violence against civilians in the region of South-Eastern Nigeria,” stated Otto Hiltunen, the crime commissioner and investigation head.

“The man has carried out his activity, among other things, on his social media channels.”

Hiltunen also informed the court that the police suspected four additional individuals in Finland of funding Ekpa’s activities.

According to the story, Ekpa is of Nigerian descent and was born in the Finnish city of Lahti.

His offence occurred between August 23, 2021, and November 18, 2024, according to court documents cited in the publication.

Ekpa is not the only person the police have arrested. In February 2023, they caught him at a private Lahtian flat, but he was freed the same day.

Through the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, Ekpa has continued to be outspoken on social media, raising money and agitating for a Biafran nation to secede. In the southeast part of Nigeria, both factions have been involved in acts of violence, murders, and maimings.

Since gaining formal independence in 1960, Nigeria has seen the emergence of several separatist organisations. The latest surge of calls for self-determination among different ethnic groups has been louder under its immediate previous President Muhammadu Buhari.

Musings From Abroad

Malian singer Rokia Traore arrested in Italy, to be sent to Belgium

Published

1 day ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

After Italy’s top court denied her appeal, well-known Malian singer, Rokia Traore, who was detained in Rome in June due to a global child custody dispute, will be sent over to Belgium in the next few days, her attorney announced on Wednesday.

The 50-year-old Traore is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and one of Africa’s most well-known vocalists.

“Rokia suffered an injustice. She was arrested without the Belgian criminal court hearing her voice. Now, the battle for Rokia’s rights moves to Brussels,” lawyer Maddalena Del Re said in a statement to Reuters.

The attorney also stated that in its decision late Tuesday, Italy’s Court of Cassation upheld an extradition decision from the European Court of Justice.

Under a European arrest order, Traore was taken into custody on June 20 at the Fiumicino airport in Rome. In October 2023, she was given a two-year prison sentence in Belgium related to a dispute over her daughter’s custody.

She had flown to perform outside Rome’s Colosseum, and she has been imprisoned in Civitavecchia, close to the Italian city, since her detention at Fiumicino.

Lawyer Del Re said that because a conviction was rendered without the defendant’s presence, the Belgian process goes against both international norms and Italian constitutional standards.

After she disregarded a court order to turn over her baby to her Belgian father, the singer’s divorced ex-partner, she was initially taken into custody in France in 2020 on a Belgian arrest warrant.

She disobeyed orders not to leave France until her extradition case was handled by taking a private jet to Mali months after being conditionally released. Mali is where her daughter resides.