{"id":48124,"date":"2023-10-07T18:11:08","date_gmt":"2023-10-07T18:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/state-spent-80m-since-2019-on-lawyers-in-hidden-debts-case-minister"},"modified":"2023-10-07T19:29:05","modified_gmt":"2023-10-07T19:29:05","slug":"state-spent-80m-since-2019-on-lawyers-in-hidden-debts-case-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/state-spent-80m-since-2019-on-lawyers-in-hidden-debts-case-minister","title":{"rendered":"State spent $80M since 2019 on lawyers in hidden debts case \u2013 minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. <\/strong><\/span>The Mozambican minister of the economy and finance said on Monday that the state has spent around US$80 million (\u20ac76 million) since 2019 on lawyers in the trial of the hidden debts case in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the start of the case in February 2019, there have been accumulated costs of around US$80 million,\u201d said Max Tonela, during a joint press conference with Mozambique\u2019s public prosecutor in Maputo.<\/p>\n

According to Tonela, the Mozambican state currently spends around \u00a33.5 million (\u20ac4 million) a month on lawyers.<\/p>\n

For the minister of the economy and finance, the out-of-court settlement reached on Sunday with the UBS group over the financing of the purchase of fishing boats by Credit Suisse will make it possible to reduce the costs of the trial for Mozambique.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are lawyers hired to defend Mozambique\u2019s case and one of the aims of the agreement is to mitigate risks, but also to ensure the lowest possible costs, bearing in mind that there is no predictability as to how long the trial process will continue and the associated costs,\u201d said Max Tonela.<\/p>\n

The Mozambican authorities said that British lawyers had been hired to assist the public prosecutor\u2019s office because it was \u201can action taking place in a foreign court\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state had to identify and hire lawyers, in this case \u2018Peters and Peters\u2019, from London, to assist the public prosecutor in this civil action that was brought by the state,\u201d said Mozambique\u2019s deputy attorney general, A\u0302ngelo Matusse.<\/p>\n

The Republic of Mozambique claims that the guarantees given for bank loans for the purchase of maritime security vessels, tuna fishing boats and other equipment should not be considered valid because they were obtained through the corruption of senior state officials.<\/p>\n

The loans were endorsed by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) government when Armando Guebuza was still head of state, without the knowledge of parliament or the Administrative Tribunal<\/p>\n

Mozambique wants to cancel the millions of dollars owed to Credit Suisse, as well as obtain financial compensation for the macro-financial damage caused.<\/p>\n

A\u0302ngelo Matusse clarified today that the agreement with the UBS Group does not affect the other ongoing legal proceedings related to the hidden debts, also mentioning the appeal admitted by the London court on the immunity of the president Filipe Nyusi.<\/p>\n

Also defendants in the case are former president Armando Guebuza, his eldest son Armando Ndambi Guebuza, former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang, former SISE director of economic intelligence Anto\u0301nio Carlos do Rosa\u0301rio and former director of the State Information and Security Services (SISE) Grego\u0301rio Lea\u0303o.<\/p>\n

The case, which was uncovered in 2016 and became known as \u201chidden debts\u201d, involves contracts and loans totalling more than US$2.7 billion (\u20ac2.5 billion), according to the Mozambican Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, with the banks Credit Suisse and Russian VTB, between 2013 and 2014.<\/p>\n

The scandal led to the suspension of international support, including from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which only resumed financial aid to the country years later.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mozambique<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican minister of the economy and finance said on Monday that the state has spent around US$80 million (\u20ac76 million) since 2019 on lawyers in the trial of the hidden debts case in London. \u201cSince the start of the case in February 2019, there have been accumulated costs of around US$80 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":48123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,281,283],"class_list":["post-48124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mozambique","tag-mozambique"],"yoast_head":"\nState spent $80M since 2019 on lawyers in hidden debts case \u2013 minister - Mozambique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Mozambican minister of the economy and finance said on Monday that the state has spent around US$80 million (\u20ac76 mil ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/state-spent-80m-since-2019-on-lawyers-in-hidden-debts-case-minister\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"State spent $80M since 2019 on lawyers in hidden debts case \u2013 minister\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Mozambican minister of the economy and finance said on Monday that the state has spent around US$80 million (\u20ac76 mil ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/state-spent-80m-since-2019-on-lawyers-in-hidden-debts-case-minister\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mozambique\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-07T18:11:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-07T19:29:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2023\/10\/sm_1696694113.67718.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/state-spent-80m-since-2019-on-lawyers-in-hidden-debts-case-minister#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/state-spent-80m-since-2019-on-lawyers-in-hidden-debts-case-minister\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"State spent $80M since 2019 on lawyers in hidden debts case \u2013 minister\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-07T18:11:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-07T19:29:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/state-spent-80m-since-2019-on-lawyers-in-hidden-debts-case-minister\"},\"wordCount\":516,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/state-spent-80m-since-2019-on-lawyers-in-hidden-debts-case-minister#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2023\/10\/sm_1696694113.67718.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mozambique\",\"Mozambique\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/state-spent-80m-since-2019-on-lawyers-in-hidden-debts-case-minister#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/state-spent-80m-since-2019-on-lawyers-in-hidden-debts-case-minister\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/state-spent-80m-since-2019-on-lawyers-in-hidden-debts-case-minister\",\"name\":\"State spent $80M since 2019 on lawyers in hidden debts case \u2013 minister - 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