The verdict in the case concerning the payment of bribes to enable illegal loans to PROINDICUS, MAM and EMATUM, which is being heard by the High Court in London, will be announced today, Monday (29).

A publication by News says that initially, this act should have taken place last week, but, without justification, Judge Robin Knowles, of the High Court in London, ended up postponing the reading of the verdict.

Mozambique sued Privinvest and its owner, Iskandar Safa, as well as its senior manager, Jean Boustani, in a London court.

However, with the production of evidence having ended last December, the magistrate said in the event that, due to the complexity of the case, he would need at least six months, a considerably reasonable period, to make a final judgment.

Mozambique demanded 3.1 billion dollars from the shipping group Privinvest and its owner, Iskandar Safa, for damages, compensation and indemnity in the "hidden debts" case.

In fact, during his interrogation, Iskandar Safa, the owner of Privinvest, denied his involvement in paying bribes to make the illegal loans to PROINDICUS, MAM and EMATUM viable, blaming his collaborator and manager, Jean Boustani. In turn, Jean Boustani, who was heard during the trial, admitted that he had made several payments to different entities and individuals in order to finance private investments in Mozambique and not as bribes.

In addition, for the lawyers working for the Mozambican state, this justification cannot be accepted, because the documentary evidence in the case shows the opposite, namely the payment of bribes to make the illegal debts possible.

For the lawyers, the three companies were never designed to succeed, but rather came about through bribes from both government officials and important bankers.

The loans amounted to more than two billion dollars granted in 2013 and 2014 to PROINDICUS, EMATUM and MAM by Credit Suisse and VTB.

It should be noted that the Mozambican state has reached an out-of-court agreement with Credit Suisse Bank, as part of the financing of the PROINDICUS project. Earlier this month, another out-of-court agreement was signed with the banks BCP SA, VTB Capital Plc (intervened) and the former VTB Bank Europe, SE (intervened under the management of OWH SE).

(Photo DR)