Harare — Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi is ultimately to blame for the failure of projects at the centre of the “tuna bond” affair, the owner of Emirati-Lebanese shipbuilder Privinvest told London’s High Court, writes or reports ………………
Privinvest and its French shipping tycoon owner Iskander Safa, is accused of spending more than U.S.$136 million to obtain favourable terms for three projects in 2013 and 2014, including one aimed at exploiting Mozambique’s coastal waters, rich in tuna.
The southern African country alleges that Safa and his firm paid millions of dollars in bribes to bankers at Credit Suisse and authorities in Mozambique, in a complaint valued at U.S.$3.1 billion.
Privinvest and Safa assert that all payments were made legally and are refuting any illegality. They claim that the lawsuit is a politically driven attempt to shift the focus away from Nyusi and other high-ranking officials, who they claim wasted the projects’ potential.
Privinvest attempted to involve Nyusi in the case, for payments totalling U.S.$11 million that it claims to have made to support both the election campaign of Nyusi’s ruling Frelimo party and his bid for the presidency. However, Nyusi has immunity as a head of state, according to a decision made by the High Court in September, 2023. An appeal against that decision is anticipated to be heard in February, 2024.
A last-minute deal with Credit Suisse’s new owner, UBS (UBSG.S) delayed the case which finally got underway last week. Mozambique is attempting to recover U.S.$700 million in losses as well as U.S.$2.4 billion in potential liabilities. The case focuses on agreements made between state-owned enterprises and Privinvest for bonds and loans from banks, including Credit Suisse, that are supported by secret government guarantees.
However, hundreds of millions of dollars vanished, and when the government’s debt was revealed in 2016, donors like the International Monetary Fund momentarily stopped providing support, which led to a crash in currency values, defaults, and financial instability.
In 2022, Ndambi Guebuza, the son of former president Armando Guebuza was found guilty along with ten other people for corruption in which the government concealed massive debts, causing Mozambique’s economy to the brink of collapse. He was sentenced to 12 years in jail.
While also in 2022, Mozambique’s former finance minister Manuel Chang, jailed in South Africa since 2018, was extradited to the U.S. As finance minister at the time, Chang confirmed to Swiss bankers that proceeds from a state loan should be paid to a commercial broker instead of the Mozambique Central Bank. He is said to have guaranteed loans that were illegal under Mozambican law, and kept these loans secret even from other cabinet members. In 2016 a default on Eurobonds issued by the Mozambican government to hide these and other unpaid loans, brought these actions to public attention.