{"id":49221,"date":"2023-10-26T20:40:31","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T20:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/portugals-bcp-bank-lent-100m-in-good-faith-in-hidden-debts-case"},"modified":"2023-10-26T21:02:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T21:02:21","slug":"portugals-bcp-bank-lent-100m-in-good-faith-in-hidden-debts-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/portugals-bcp-bank-lent-100m-in-good-faith-in-hidden-debts-case","title":{"rendered":"Portugal\u2019s BCP bank lent $100M in good faith in hidden debts case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. <\/strong><\/span>Portugal\u2019s BCP bank argued on Friday in London\u2019s Commercial Court that it lent money in good faith to Mozambique, refusing to be prejudiced by the country\u2019s attempt to cancel debts incurred by alleged corruption. \u201cBCP is an innocent bank that, like others, lent money in good faith,\u201d said Stephen Midwinter, the lawyer representing the institution in the ongoing trial of the \u201chidden debts\u201d case in British justice.<\/p>\n

In his opening arguments, BCP\u2019s lawyer disputed the Mozambican state\u2019s assumptions that the guarantees given by former minister of finance Manuel Chang are not valid, and refuted that the alleged corruption is enough to invalidate and cancel the contract. Midwinter emphasised that BCP had no knowledge of the bribes or suspected irregularities, and recalled that it was VTB that negotiated the terms of the loan. \u201cIt\u2019s unrealistic that a syndicated lender could have known,\u201d he emphasised. In 2014, the Portuguese bank participated in a syndicated loan together with the Russian bank VTB to finance the Mozambican state company MAM to buy goods and services from the naval group Privinvest to build shipyards for the construction and local maintenance of ships. BCP contributed $100 million towards a total loan of around $535 million.<\/p>\n

The scheme was part of a series of projects to buy security equipment and fishing boats to protect Mozambique\u2019s exclusive economic zone and exploit fishing resources, for which two other state companies were set up, Proindicus and EMATUM. However, these companies stopped paying back the loans and in 2016 it was discovered that the sovereign guarantees for the financing had been signed by the then minister of finance Manuel Chang in defiance of parliament and the rules in force. The debts were estimated at around $2.7 billion (around \u20ac2.55 billion), according to the indictment filed by the Mozambican public prosecutor\u2019s office, whose scandal led the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international donors to suspend support to the country.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the Mozambican ombudsman (PGR) filed a civil suit in the London Commercial Court on behalf of the Mozambican state to cancel part of these debts, claiming that they were the product of bribes from the shipping group Privinvest and its owner, Iskandar Safa, to public officials, including Chang.<\/p>\n

The start of the trial in London\u2019s Commercial Court was postponed for a fortnight following an agreement between Mozambique and the banking group UBS, owner of Credit Suisse, and other financial institutions, which financed the other loans.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to continue until the end of December.<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Mozambique. Portugal\u2019s BCP bank argued on Friday in London\u2019s Commercial Court that it lent money in good faith to Mozambique, refusing to be prejudiced by the country\u2019s attempt to cancel debts incurred by alleged corruption. \u201cBCP is an innocent bank that, like others, lent money in good faith,\u201d said Stephen Midwinter, the lawyer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":49219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[233,281,283],"class_list":["post-49221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mozambique","tag-mozambique"],"yoast_head":"\nPortugal\u2019s BCP bank lent $100M in good faith in hidden debts case - Mozambique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Portugal\u2019s BCP bank argued on Friday in London\u2019s Commercial Court that it lent money in good faith to Mozambique, refusi ...\" \/>\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\/portugals-bcp-bank-lent-100m-in-good-faith-in-hidden-debts-case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Portugal\u2019s BCP bank lent $100M in good faith in hidden debts case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Portugal\u2019s BCP bank argued on Friday in London\u2019s Commercial Court that it lent money in good faith to Mozambique, refusi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/portugals-bcp-bank-lent-100m-in-good-faith-in-hidden-debts-case\" \/>\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=\"2023-10-26T20:40:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-26T21:02:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2023\/10\/sm_1698341457.177518.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\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=\"2 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\/portugals-bcp-bank-lent-100m-in-good-faith-in-hidden-debts-case#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/portugals-bcp-bank-lent-100m-in-good-faith-in-hidden-debts-case\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Portugal\u2019s BCP bank lent $100M in good faith in hidden debts case\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-26T20:40:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-26T21:02:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/portugals-bcp-bank-lent-100m-in-good-faith-in-hidden-debts-case\"},\"wordCount\":443,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/portugals-bcp-bank-lent-100m-in-good-faith-in-hidden-debts-case#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2023\/10\/sm_1698341457.177518.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mozambique\",\"Mozambique\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/portugals-bcp-bank-lent-100m-in-good-faith-in-hidden-debts-case#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/portugals-bcp-bank-lent-100m-in-good-faith-in-hidden-debts-case\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/portugals-bcp-bank-lent-100m-in-good-faith-in-hidden-debts-case\",\"name\":\"Portugal\u2019s BCP bank lent $100M in good faith in hidden debts case - 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