The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York has charged former employees of the Swiss multinational bank Credit Suisse with $2 billion fraud in connection with Mozambique's bond scandal, media reported on Friday, citing the attorney's office.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th January, 2019) The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York has charged former employees of the Swiss multinational bank Credit Suisse with $2 billion fraud in connection with Mozambique's bond scandal, media reported on Friday, citing the attorney's office.According to the Financial Times newspaper, the three bankers were arrested and released on bail in London on Thursday, with the United States seeking their extradition on charges of money laundering and defrauding of US investors.
Ex-Mozambican Finance Minister Manuel Chang was also arrested in South Africa on Saturday in connection with the case.
Chang and the Credit Suisse employees "created the maritime projects as fronts to enrich themselves and intentionally diverted portions of the loan proceeds," the indictment read, as quoted by the newspaper.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Credit Suisse reportedly said that its employees "worked to defeat the bank's internal controls, acted out of a motive of personal profit, and sought to hide these activities from the bank," and expressed readiness to cooperate in the probe.
In 2013, Mozambique's state-owned company, through Credit Suisse, Russia's VTB Bank and France's BNP Paribas, issued $850 million worth of bonds. It was supposed that the funds received from investors would be spent on the development of the fishing industry. The loans were also partially concealed from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Later, the government of Mozambique announced that the money was partially spent on the purchase of military equipment. Two years later, the country announced the need to restructure the debts, defaulting on them.
