Maputo, 1 Oct (AIM) – The Court of Appeal of England has admitted an appeal by the Abu Dhabi based group Privinvest against the immunity granted to Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi in the trial of the “hidden debts” case in the British courts.
The decision was issued on Friday, when Judge Elizabeth Laing accepted an appeal against the London High Court’s decision of 4 September, which gave Nyusi diplomatic immunity from legal proceedings.
“Whether or not the trial should be postponed must depend on whether any party requests it and, obviously, on the judge’s considered opinion as to whether such a postponement should be granted. This is a matter for him”, said the judge in document cited by the Portuguese news agency, LUSA.
In his 4 September ruling, Judge Robin Knowles decided that Nyusi enjoys immunity while he is a serving Head of State, and so cannot be tried in the civil case of the “hidden debts” which is now before the High Court.
Knowles noted that the acts of which Privinvest accused Nyusi were committed before he became President and were “not in his public capacity or part of his official functions”.
The term “hidden debts” refers to the loans of over two billion US dollars which three fraudulent, security-linked Mozambican companies – Proindicus, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management) – in 2013 and 2014, borrowed from the banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia.
Although the three newly-formed companies had no business record whatever, and although they were all run by the Security and Intelligence Service (SISE), the banks handed over the money.
They did so because the government of the day, under the then President Armando Guebuza, provided guarantees for the entire sum. The loan guarantees were signed by Guebuza’s Finance Minister, Manuel Chang – who is currently under arrest in New York, awaiting trial for money-laundering and other financial crimes.
The guarantees were illegal under Mozambican law, since they smashed through the ceiling on loan guarantees established by the 2013 and 2014 budget laws.
Privinvest was a key player in the scandal. It became the sole contractor for Proindicus, Ematum and MAM, and made its money by selling the three companies assets (such as fishing boats, patrol vessels and radar stations) at vastly inflated prices.
An independent audit of the three companies in 2016-17 calculated that Privinvest had inflated its prices by over 700 million dollars. Privinvest also ensured its contracts by bribing key Mozambican officials (including Chang) and Credit Suisse bankers. Three of these bankers, Andrew Pearse, Detelina Subeva, and Surjan Singh, confessed to taking bribes from Privinvest.
The fraudulent companies soon went bankrupt, and so what had been hidden loans became hidden debts, since the creditors wanted their money back.
Mozambique is now asking the London High Court to declare the loan guarantees null and void. It also wants UBS and Privinvest to pay compensation.
Judge Laing’s ruling comes just three days before the trial is due to open in London. On Monday, the trial is due to begin in the Commercial Court, part of the High Court in London in the case initiated by the Mozambique Attorney General’s Office (PGR) against Credit Suisse, the three former employees of the bank who have admitted to taking Privinvest bribes, and several companies in the Privinvest group.
The trial arises from attempts by the Mozambican government to have the state guarantees for the debts declared null and void.
Privinvest claims that Nyusi benefitted directly from the money of the hidden debts, to a total value of 11 million dollars (10 million supposedly paid by Privinvest to finance the 2014 election campaign of the ruling Frelimo Party and one million to finance the presidential campaign of Nyusi himself). Privinvest argued that Nyusi should therefore be held jointly liable, if Privinvest is found guilty.
Privinvest is obviously trying to embarrass Nyusi since it has not mentioned all the other figures who undoubtedly took money from the company, and were sentenced to long prison terms in a Maputo trial held in 2021-22.
These include ex-President Guebuza’s oldest son, Ndambi Guebuza, the head of SISE under Guebuza, Gregorio Leao, and his deputy, Antonio Carlos do Rosario who became chairperson of all three fraudulent companies.
(AIM)
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