Maputo, 20 Jun (AIM) – One of the Credit Suisse bankers who played a key role in Mozambique’s largest ever financial scandal, known as the case of the hidden debts, has avoided any jail time, thanks to his cooperation with United States prosecutors.
Singh and two other senior Credit Suisse staff, Andrew Pearse and Detelina Subeva, negotiated illicit loans with the Mozambican authorities under the then President, Armando Guebuza. All three confessed to taking bribes from the Abu Dhabi based group, Privinvest.
The loans went to three fraudulent, security-related Mozambican companies, Proindicus, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management) in 2013 and 2014. All these companies had been set up by the Mozambican Security and Intelligence Service (SISE), and the SISE head of economic intelligence, Antonio Carlos do Rosario, was chairperson of all three companies.
The companies obtained loans of over two billion US dollars from Credit Suisse and the Russian bank VTB. These loans were only possible because Guebuza’s Finance Minister, Manuel Chang, signed loan guarantees for the full amount. The guarantees were entirely illegal since they smashed through the ceilings on government loans set by the 2013 and 2014 budget laws.
Chang is now serving a jail sentence in New York for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The US court found it proven that he had taken seven million dollars in bribes, in payment for the illegal loan guarantees. Rosario, and his immediate superior, the then SISE General Director, Gregorio Leao, took large bribes from Privinvest, and were sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by a Maputo court.
Surjan Singh took 5.7 million dollars in bribes from Privinvest, and, according to the Bloomberg agency, he was looking at a jail sentence of between 46 and 47 months. However, US district judge Nicholas Garaufis, said that, in light of his cooperation with the prosecutors, he would not impose a prison term.
“I saw first-hand Mr. Singh’s testimony,” the judge said. “I find he was candid, direct, measured and thoughtful.”
Andrew Pearse, who was Singh’s boss, and was a key witness, also avoided prison. The third Credit Suisse banker, Detelina Subeva, pleaded guilty but did not testify.
All three bankers have been banned for life from working in regulated financial services in Britain. The UK Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) decision in May 2025 followed the convictions of Pearse and Singh in the US. The FCA says this underscores the FCA’s determination to hold individuals personally accountable for breaches of anti-money laundering obligations and failures in integrity at the highest levels of international banking.
(AIM)
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