US prosecutors on Tuesday accused former Mozambican Finance Minister Manuel Chang of receiving seven million dollars in bribes in a "corrupt" plan to enrich himself and cheat investors, Law360 reported.

According to the portal, which specializes in legal matters, the prosecutors' statements were made in New York at the opening of Manuel Chang's trial over his role in the case of Mozambique's hidden debts.

During opening statements, a prosecutor told the jury that Chang was a "corrupt foreign official who abused his authority to enrich himself through bribery, fraud and money laundering", accusing him of a conspiracy to divert funds from Mozambique's efforts to protect and expand its natural gas and fishing industries.

Three agreements cost 622 million dollars (568.8 million euros) to finance coastal surveillance, 855 million dollars (781.7 million euros) for a fleet of tuna fishing boats and 535 million dollars (489.3 million euros) for shipyard projects, according to prosecutor Peter Cooch - quoted by Law360 - stressing that the investors lost millions of dollars because "the projects were a failure" and Mozambique defaulted on the loans.

Cooch said that the employees of the shipbuilding company Privinvest knowingly agreed to "a corrupt deal" in which Chang would help them close the massive contracts "for a price".

Evidence at the trial will include documentation of bribes and wire transfers to a Swiss bank account controlled by a friend of Chang's, the prosecutor explained.
"The defendant was so careful that he tried to avoid leaving a paper trail," but his co-conspirators "were not so careful" and documented their crimes, Cooch stressed.
Chang has been imprisoned in New York since July 2023, after being extradited from South Africa.
The former Mozambican minister, who is accused of conspiracy to defraud and involvement in a money laundering scheme, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

The United States (US) government argues that the Integrated Monitoring and Protection System (SIMP) project for Mozambique's maritime space, which gave rise to the hidden debts, was not conceived by the Mozambican government or designed to protect Mozambique's maritime space.
The prosecution says it is a "front project created by the defendants and co-conspirators to make money".

"In reality, the Proindicus, EMATUM and MAM maritime projects were used by defendant Manuel Chang and his co-conspirators to divert parts of the loan proceeds to pay millions in bribes to themselves, other Mozambican government officials and bankers," argued the US Department of Justice.

"In connection with their fraudulent scheme, the co-conspirators relied on the U.S. financial system, among other things, to seek out and secure investors and potential investors physically present in the United States," the document adds.

Also according to the indictment, the "co-conspirators diverted part of these [loan] amounts to make payments of bribes and commissions, using the US financial system with transactions through bank accounts in the United States, including at least five million dollars (4.6 million euros) to the defendant Manuel Chang through the Eastern District of New York".

At the start of the trial, Chang's lawyers told the jury that the government has no evidence to prove that Chang received "a single penny" of the alleged seven million dollars [6.4 million euros] in bribes or that he conspired with anyone to break the law.

Chang's lawyer, Adam Ford, claimed that investors lost money because "that's what happens" when you make "risky" investments in emerging markets, not because of anything his client did.
The former finance minister rejects all the accusations and points to the current president, Filipe Nyusi, who at the time was defense minister, as the one who ordered him to sign the bank guarantees that made the hidden debts possible.

Chang was Mozambique's finance minister under Armando Guebuza, between 2005 and 2010, and allegedly guaranteed debts of 2.7 billion dollars (2.5 billion euros) secretly contracted in favor of EMATUM, Proindicus and MAM, public companies mentioned in the US indictment, allegedly created for this purpose in the maritime security and fisheries sectors, between 2013 and 2014.

The loan mobilization was organized by the Russian banks Credit Suisse and VTB.
The loans were secretly endorsed by the Frelimo government, led by the President of the Republic at the time, Armando Guebuza, without the knowledge of parliament or the Administrative Court.

After the opening statements of the trial in New York, Andrew Pearse was called, the former European head of Credit Suisse's Global Financing Group, who pleaded guilty in 2019 to the same alleged scheme and has not yet been sentenced.

"I committed conspiracy to commit wire fraud," Pearse told the jury, quoted by Law360, noting that he received millions in illegal payments from Privinvest and to ensure that the deal went to Credit Suisse.
"In total, I received 45 million dollars," said Pearse. (NMinuto)