A document presented this week by US prosecutors during closing arguments in the trial of former Mozambican Finance Minister Manuel Chang in Brooklyn, New York, revealed that there was an "ambitious business plan" between Privinvest, the Guebuza family and other important state officials at the time.

According to information released by the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), a Mozambican non-governmental organization (NGO), which is closely following the trial of the former Mozambican finance minister in the United States of America (USA), a group owned by Privinvest, Armando Guebuza, Ndambi, Manuel Chang, Gregório Leão and Carlos do Rosário, based in Liechtenstein, would operate in various sectors in Mozambique, including advising the Ministry of Finance exclusively.

This is a project to set up an investment fund in Liechtenstein, called Privinvest Holding Mozambique, which would operate in various business sectors in Mozambique, such as the financial sector, real estate, oil and gas, agriculture, shipbuilding and even luxury jet operations.

The holding company, majority-owned by the Guebuza family and Privinvest, would focus its activity on Mozambique, despite being based in Liechtenstein in Europe.

"This private deal between the family of the former head of state and government, Armando Guebuza, and the company that led the state to incur the largest single debt the Mozambican state has ever had, was to develop the potential of Mozambique's wealth," CIP said in its publication.

Meanwhile, benefiting at the time from the fact that Armando Guebuza was the head of state and government, the company planned to act by creating subsidiary companies focused on the following areas of activity: acquiring INAMAR's shipyards to create a shipbuilding industry and maintenance/export facilities, developing hotels, residential and office buildings in Mozambique's booming real estate market, drawing on the experience of Domaine de Barbossi, creating a local commercial and investment bank to support and benefit from the growth of the Mozambican economy, as well as working with ENH to provide financing and technical services to gas development companies.

In addition, the business plan of the Guebuza family and "company" included the rental and sale of private jets to fill a gap in private aircraft services in Mozambique, including the rental and ownership of VIP planes, in cooperation with the International Aeronautical Federation (FAI), which operates a fleet of 21 planes.

Thus, the Liechtenstein Investment Fund, called Privinvest Holding Mozambique, would have Privinvest Holding, Iskandar Safa's company, as its main shareholder, with 50%. The other 50% would be held by a group of senior Mozambican state officials who controlled key sectors of governance at the time, starting with Guebuza himself. Among the 50% of Mozambicans, Armando Guebuza and his son Armando Ndambi Guebuza would have 50% of the shares, Manuel Chang would have 20%, Gregório Leão José (director of SISE at the time) would have 20% and António Carlos do Rosário (director of Economic Intelligence at the time of the events) would have 10%.

"With this shareholder structure it was guaranteed that Privinvest Holding Mozambique would have all the conditions to lobby for the success of its business in Mozambique," the same publication reads.

However, for the US Department of Justice there is no doubt that this business plan between Guebuza, other high-ranking state officials and Privinvest was just to make more money at the expense of the Mozambican state.