By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A former Mozambican Minister of Finance has been found guilty of corruption that led to the worst economic crisis in the country since independence.
Manuel Chang was convicted for accepting kickback through US banks for approving secret loans, which was meant to be used to pay for a fleet of tuna fishing ships and other projects.
The facility was however mismanaged, leaving Mozambique in $2bn (£1.5bn) debt.
The scam was later dubbed the “tuna bond”.
The former minister was arrested in South Africa in 2018, and extradited to the US the following year to face fraud and money-laundering charges, against the demand of the Mozambican authorities to have him tried at home.
Potentially facing a 20-year jail term, Chang who will be sentenced at a later date has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. His lawyers have indicated readiness to appeal his conviction.
Analysts say it is one of the biggest corruption cases seen on the African continent.
At least ten other persons have been imprisoned in Mozambique over the scandal, including the son of then-President Armando Guebuza.
The loans were issued by Credit Suisse and the Russian bank VTB and signed off by the Mozambican government.
But some of these loans were not disclosed and were guaranteed by Chang when he was in office as finance minister between 2005 and 2015.
The court in New York heard that Chang had pocketed $7m in bribes from the shipbuilding firm Privinvest, but his lawyer said there was no evidence Chang had received “a single penny” and said the projects were approved by former President Guebuza and other ministers.
But in her closing arguments on Monday, the prosecuting assistant US attorney Genny Ngai said Chang had personally “signed all of the loan guarantees… and he was critical to the loans being approved”.
“He cared about money over his position,” she told the court.
Three former Credit Suisse bankers had pleaded guilty to US charges of money laundering over the “tuna bond” case.
In late 2021, UK authorities fined the investment bank $178m over the scandal.
The fine was part of a $475m settlement with UK, Swiss and US regulators.
As a result of the fraudulent deal, “a couple of million people were thrown into poverty” and “several billion dollars [was] knocked off economic growth,” Richard Messick, who writes the Global Anti-Corruption Blog, told the BBC.
In a statement on Thursday, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace, said: “Today’s verdict is an inspiring victory for justice and the people of Mozambique who were betrayed by the defendant, a corrupt, high-ranking government official whose greed and self-interest sold out one of the poorest countries in the world.”
