Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating lawyer Alexandre Chivale on suspicion of money laundering, reports Tuesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.
Chivale is a director of the company Txopela Investments, which is closely linked to the Abu Dhabi based group, Privinvest, which is at the heart of the scandal of Mozambique’s “hidden debts”. Txopela, the Public Prosecutor argues, was one of the vehicles through which Privinvest funnelled bribes.
The key figure in Txopela was Antonio Carlos do Rosario, the former head of economic intelligence in the Mozambican Security and Intelligence Service (SISE), who became chairperson of the board of the three fraudulent companies Proindicus, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management).
Before his arrest in early 2019, Rosario had been building up a significant property portfolio, using Privinvest money laundered through Txopela. With Rosario detained, and his properties seized, Chivale found that he was effectively in charge of them, because Txopela, much to the annoyance of the prosecutors, was appointed “bona fide depository” for these assets.
Chivale then set up another company, Dandula Investments, in which he holds 75 per cent of the shares, to manage the properties.
Last week, Prosecutor Sheila Marrengula persuaded judge Efigenio Baptista of the Maputo City Court that it was highly irregular for Txopela to be put in charge of Rosario’s properties. Instead, the normal procedure in criminal cases will now be followed, in which seized assets are put into the hands of the Department of State Assets in the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Baptista also ruled that Chivale’s conflicts of interest made it impossible for him to continue representing Rosario in the current case, given the role of Txopela in channelling the Privinvest bribes.
The Public Prosecutor is also looking into Chivale’s frequent visits to Lebanon, where he has met with Privinvest officials, notably Lebanese citizen Jean Boustani, who was one of the masterminds behind the hidden debts scheme, working closely with three corrupt managers from the bank Credit Suisse (Andrew Pearse, Detelina Subeva and Surjan Singh), and with Rosario and other Mozambican officials.
According to the “Noticias” source, Chivale is also suspected of obstructing the investigations of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
If sufficient evidence is indeed collected that Chivale has committed crimes, then he could face a separate trial, since there is no way his name can be added to the accused in the current court case. It is possible, however, that he will be summoned to appear as a witness.
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