The Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) has announced the seizure of a hotel establishment in the northern city of Nampula, in an operation to combat money laundering that has taken place over the last five years.

According to a Televisão de Moçambique (TVM)This Sunday (18), the Attorney General's Office (PGR), through an operation called "Stop Money Laundering", seized a luxury hotel called Fénix, located on Avenida FPLM, in the city of Nampula.

The seizure of this establishment is part of an operation by the Public Prosecutor's Office that also includes other properties in Maputo and Nacala, which were seized due to suspicions of involvement in money laundering activities. Among the properties seized under the same scheme are properties located on Avenida 25 de Setembro and Avenida Julius Nyerere, in Maputo, and the "Su Kasa" grazing house, in the Bagamoyo neighborhood.

According to PRG, despite this seizure, the hotel establishment continues to operate, with a change in the leasing regime, where rent payments will now be made directly to the state, which now owns the property. In this sense, "all the companies, including commercial banks, service institutions, travel agencies and other establishments, which operate or lease the properties involved in the operation, will continue to operate normally, with the only change being in the rent payment system, which will now have to be made by the operators of the spaces directly to the state".

In the same operation, the PGR discovered a series of false identity cards in a front company in Nacala, which were used to open other fictitious companies, with the aim of facilitating money laundering. In this operation, around 40 vehicles were also seized.

"The 'modus operandi' of the defendants consisted of setting up front companies, used as a vehicle to export capital whose origin is illicit and, in some cases, unknown," details the publication.

The operation included searches in several locations, including the cities of Maputo, Matola, Nampula and Nacala. "During these searches, the authorities discovered that the suspects were working in collusion with customs brokers and bank officials to falsify bank and customs documents, allowing the transfer of funds under the pretext of fictitious imports," he adds.

(Photo DR)