{"id":52317,"date":"2023-12-17T18:33:56","date_gmt":"2023-12-17T18:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/privinvest-refutes-corruption-charges-wants-case-dropped"},"modified":"2023-12-17T19:29:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-17T19:29:19","slug":"privinvest-refutes-corruption-charges-wants-case-dropped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/privinvest-refutes-corruption-charges-wants-case-dropped","title":{"rendered":"Privinvest refutes corruption charges, wants case dropped"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. <\/strong><\/span>The shipping group Privinvest on Friday refuted the accusation of corruption by Mozambican public officials in the closing arguments of the Mozambique debt trial taking place at the Commercial Court in London and asked for the case to be dropped.<\/p>\n

Duncan Matthews, lawyer for Privinvest and the owner, Iskandar Safa, said at Friday\u2019s hearing that the accusations by Mozambique\u2019s Attorney General\u2019s Office were not proven because it failed to present official documents or implicate important figures, such as the current President Filipe Nyusi.<\/p>\n

The lawyer highlighted inconsistencies in the indictment, which names officials and figures associated with the government, such as former Finance Minister Manuel Chang, former head of the State Information and Security Services (SISE) Anto\u0301nio Carlos do Rosa\u0301rio or the eldest son of former President of the Republic Armando Guebuza, Ndambi Guebuza.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a number of individuals, some signatories to Mozambican contracts, who are not accused of corruption. Entire government ministries, the central bank, a large part of the country\u2019s bureaucracy, who were involved, who were aware of the documents,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n

As minister of defence at the time (2008-2014), \u201cPresident Nyusi was at the centre of everything,\u201d he said, referring to his involvement in preparing projects and discussing contracts for the purchase of boats and equipment for the security of the Exclusive Economic Zone.<\/p>\n

In addition to Nyusi, Privinvest believes that former officials such as the current prime minister (former minister of economy and finance), Adriano Maleiane, former minister of the interior Alberto Mondlane, former minister of fisheries Victor Borges or the former governor of the Central Bank of Mozambique, Ernesto Gove, should have been questioned in this case.<\/p>\n

The head of state refused to testify, claiming diplomatic immunity, but a favourable decision will be appealed in February 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case continues to be that of a remorseful buyer who, for political reasons, decided to try to keep a series of very valuable pieces of equipment without paying for them,\u201d Privinvest summarises in its written submissions, recalling that it was the government that identified the need to defend and exploit its Exclusive Economic Zone.<\/p>\n

The shipping group rejects having paid bribes to public officials, including former Finance Minister Manuel Chang, to enable the contracts and state financial guarantees that unblocked the funding, arguing that they were payments for services and investments in the African country.<\/p>\n

Privinvest recalled that the contributions it made at the same time to the political campaigns of Frelimo and Filipe Nyusi were not considered illegal and that the attorney general does not classify these transactions as bribes to former President Armando Guebuza or his successor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the republic manages to prove that Privinvest made illegal payments to Mozambican officials, this means that payments in favour of President Nyusi were also made and received illegally. President Nyusi will, therefore, be liable to the republic for the same damage as Privinvest, based on the same material grounds as the Mozambican officials,\u201d it alleges.<\/p>\n

The case of the \u201chidden debts\u201d dates back to 2013 and 2014, when Chang approved state guarantees on loans to Proinducus, Ematus and MAM from the banks Credit Suisse and VTB, without parliament\u2019s consent.<\/p>\n

Uncovered in 2016, the debts were estimated at around $2.7 billion (around \u20ac2.55 billion), according to figures presented by the Mozambican Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

The scandal led the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international donors to suspend support for several years. Mozambique has accused Privinvest and its owner of corruption and is demanding $3.1 billion (\u20ac2.9 billion) to cover costs and other financial commitments arising from the debts assumed.<\/p>\n

Prior to the trial, the Mozambican government reached an out-of-court settlement with the UBS group, owner of the Credit Suisse bank, which resulted in the forgiveness of around $450 million (\u20ac417 million) to the African country. Closing arguments will continue until 21 December, but Judge Robin Knowles\u2019 decision is expected to take several months to be announced.<\/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 shipping group Privinvest on Friday refuted the accusation of corruption by Mozambican public officials in the closing arguments of the Mozambique debt trial taking place at the Commercial Court in London and asked for the case to be dropped. Duncan Matthews, lawyer for Privinvest and the owner, Iskandar Safa, said at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":52316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[233,281,283],"class_list":["post-52317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mozambique","tag-mozambique"],"yoast_head":"\nPrivinvest refutes corruption charges, wants case dropped - Mozambique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The shipping group Privinvest on Friday refuted the accusation of corruption by Mozambican public officials in the closi ...\" \/>\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\/privinvest-refutes-corruption-charges-wants-case-dropped\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Privinvest refutes corruption charges, wants case dropped\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The shipping group Privinvest on Friday refuted the accusation of corruption by Mozambican public officials in the closi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/privinvest-refutes-corruption-charges-wants-case-dropped\" \/>\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=\"2023-12-17T18:33:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-17T19:29:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2023\/12\/sm_1702828673.348221.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"477\" \/>\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\/privinvest-refutes-corruption-charges-wants-case-dropped#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/privinvest-refutes-corruption-charges-wants-case-dropped\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Privinvest refutes corruption charges, wants case dropped\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-17T18:33:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-17T19:29:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/privinvest-refutes-corruption-charges-wants-case-dropped\"},\"wordCount\":667,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/privinvest-refutes-corruption-charges-wants-case-dropped#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2023\/12\/sm_1702828673.348221.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mozambique\",\"Mozambique\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/privinvest-refutes-corruption-charges-wants-case-dropped#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/privinvest-refutes-corruption-charges-wants-case-dropped\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/privinvest-refutes-corruption-charges-wants-case-dropped\",\"name\":\"Privinvest refutes corruption charges, wants case dropped - 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