{"id":9323,"date":"2021-11-22T16:49:13","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T16:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/?p=9323"},"modified":"2021-11-22T16:03:21","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T16:03:21","slug":"hidden-debts-trial-19-november-2021-aim-report-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/hidden-debts-trial-19-november-2021-aim-report-2","title":{"rendered":"Hidden debts trial: 19 November 2021 \u2013 AIM report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. <\/strong><\/span>The Maputo City Court on Thursday night heard how government officials in 2013 browbeat the Bank of Mozambique into approving loans from the European bank Credit Suisse to Proindicus, the first of three fraudulent, security-linked companies which eventually obtained over two billion dollars in loans from Credit Suisse and the Russian bank, VTB.<\/p>\n

The central bank has the duty to authorise foreign loans to private entities \u2013 and, although their shareholders are public bodies, Proindicus and its sister companies, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management, are classified as private companies.<\/p>\n

So the loans from Credit Suisse and VTB required central bank authorisation. But there was a catch: a clause in the foreign exchange law states that the Bank of Mozambique may not authorise foreign loans to private bodies that will be repaid through state guarantees.<\/p>\n

The government of the day, under former President Armando Guebuza, issued guarantees covering every cent of the loans (smashing through the ceiling on loan guarantees established in the 2013 and 2014 budget laws).<\/p>\n

One of the central bank managers who handled the Proindicus loan, Elsa Chambale, told the court that she and her colleagues knew they had no power to authorise the loan, but they did so anyway because they had been told that matters of \u201cnational security\u201d were involved.<\/p>\n

She said that, in 2013, she had received a call from her director, Silvina de Abreu, who had been given instructions to receive \u201csomebody from the Defence Ministry or the security service\u201d to discuss a foreign loan, and the matter was top secret.<\/p>\n

The \u201csomebody\u201d turned out to be Eugenio Matlaba, the defence ministry official who became chairperson of Proindicus. He told Chambale that Proindicus was handling a project for coastal security, and showed her the terms of a contract already signed by Proindicus, the Ministry of Finance, and the Abu Dhabi based group Privinvest, which was the sole supplier of equipment to Proindicus.<\/p>\n

Matlaba had a dossier containing, among other documents, the Proindicus statutes, the financial contract, a letter explaining the purpose of the project, and the state guarantee signed by the then Finance Minister Manuel Chang. He stressed that the project was highly confidential, and extremely urgent. He said it was a joint project between the defence and interior ministries, and the security service, SISE.<\/p>\n

Matlaba expected Chambal to fill out and sign a form authorising the Credit Suisse loan \u2013 but she thought the matter should be analysed by her colleagues and superiors, although personally she saw no objection to signing the authorization.<\/p>\n

Chambal said she was aware that the law forbade the central bank from making such authorisations. However, since Chang himself was demanding the authorisation \u201cI believed he must have found a norm which established that authority. Although I did not know of one\u201d, said Chambal.<\/p>\n

A couple of days later, she receive a phone call from the then National Director of the Treasury, Isaltina Lucas, who asked if she had received the documents from Matlaba. Chambal replied that she was still analysing them.<\/p>\n

An angry Lucas told her \u201cthere was nothing to analyse because everything had already been signed. She told me I was playing around with serious matters, and that we should just issue the letter of authorization. It was urgent because it was a matter of defence and security\u201d.<\/p>\n

The phone call worked, and the letter of authorisation wound its way up the central bank hierarchy \u2013 from Chambal\u2019s office, to Silvina de Abreu, to board member Waldemar de Sousa, and finally to the governor of the bank himself, Ernesto Gove. At every stage the illegal authorisation was rubber-stamped.<\/p>\n

The tactics employed by Matlaba and Lucas worked. \u201cWe were convinced there was a security problem that needed to be solved\u201d, said Chambal.<\/p>\n

The initial Credit Suisse loan to Proindicus was for 372 million US dollars \u2013 but Privinvest wanted to sell more equipment to Proindicus, and so the company was soon knocking on the central bank\u2019s door again, asking for authorization to increase the loan by 250 million dollars, bringing the total to 622 million.<\/p>\n

Once again the Bank of Mozambique officials broke the law and gave the authorisation, accepting the flimsy argument that Proindicus needed more equipment.<\/p>\n

Although at the time nobody could have known that the Credit Suisse managers negotiating the loan (Andrew Pearse, Detelina Subeva and Surjan Singh) had cooked up a massive scheme for bribes and kickbacks with Privinvest official Jean Boustani, Chambal and her colleagues must have realised that something very unusual was going on. But nobody blew the whistle on the scheme.<\/p>\n

Chambal said \u201cWe were very worried by the guarantees that were being issued\u201d \u2013 so much so, that the Deputy Governor of the central bank, Antonio Pinto de Abreu, came to the rescue, by insisting that any future authorisations must be requested by Chang himself. This was why Chambal was not involved in the Ematum or MAM loans.<\/p>\n

Asked by prosecutor Sheila Marrengula if she had read the contract between Credit Suisse and Proindicus, she said she had \u2013 but when Marrengula noted that the contract makes Bank of Mozambique auhorisation a prior condition for the Credit Suisse loan, she said \u201cI don\u2019t remember that\u201d.<\/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 Maputo City Court on Thursday night heard how government officials in 2013 browbeat the Bank of Mozambique into approving loans from the European bank Credit Suisse to Proindicus, the first of three fraudulent, security-linked companies which eventually obtained over two billion dollars in loans from Credit Suisse and the Russian bank, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[233,281,283],"class_list":["post-9323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mozambique","tag-mozambique"],"yoast_head":"\nHidden debts trial: 19 November 2021 \u2013 AIM report - Mozambique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Maputo City Court on Thursday night heard how government officials in 2013 browbeat the Bank of Mozambique into appr ...\" \/>\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\/hidden-debts-trial-19-november-2021-aim-report-2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hidden debts trial: 19 November 2021 \u2013 AIM report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Maputo City Court on Thursday night heard how government officials in 2013 browbeat the Bank of Mozambique into appr ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/hidden-debts-trial-19-november-2021-aim-report-2\" \/>\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=\"2021-11-22T16:49:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2021\/11\/img-619bbf366f839.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"404\" \/>\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=\"4 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\/hidden-debts-trial-19-november-2021-aim-report-2#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/hidden-debts-trial-19-november-2021-aim-report-2\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Hidden debts trial: 19 November 2021 \u2013 AIM report\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-22T16:49:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/hidden-debts-trial-19-november-2021-aim-report-2\"},\"wordCount\":877,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/hidden-debts-trial-19-november-2021-aim-report-2#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2021\/11\/img-619bbf366f839.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mozambique\",\"Mozambique\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/hidden-debts-trial-19-november-2021-aim-report-2#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/hidden-debts-trial-19-november-2021-aim-report-2\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/hidden-debts-trial-19-november-2021-aim-report-2\",\"name\":\"Hidden debts trial: 19 November 2021 \u2013 AIM report - 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