Former Mozambican finance minister extradited to the US to face charges in a $2 billion fraud case
A former Mozambique finance minister who has been imprisoned in South Africa for over five years was extradited to the United States on Wednesday to face a fraud and corruption prosecution involving illegal government loans worth $2 billion.
Manuel Chang, Mozambique’s finance minister from 2005 to 2015, was turned over to US authorities after his last-ditch legal attempt to escape extradition failed in May, according to South African officials.
It ends Chang’s almost five-year court struggle to avoid facing prosecution in the United States and instead be deported to his native country, where rights organisations have complained that he would likely be treated leniently.
He is suspected of accepting bribes of up to $17 million during a plot to get loans from international banks and financiers for Mozambican state-owned firms for marine projects. According to US authorities, the money was obtained through kickbacks and other criminal activities.
Chang was charged in federal court in New York for his role in the conspiracy, which prosecutors said defrauded American and foreign investors.
The $2 billion in loans were supposed to support Mozambique’s fishing sector by purchasing fishing vessels, navy patrol boats, and other resources; however, it is believed that this never happened.
Law enforcement officials successfully surrendered Mr. Manuel Chang to the United States of America on July 12, 2023, according to a statement from South Africa’s Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services.
When the so-called “hidden debts” were exposed in 2016, the International Monetary Fund withdrew its funding for Mozambique, causing an economic meltdown.
Chang was detained in 2018 on a US warrant at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport. Several South African courts have rejected the Mozambican government’s attempts to have him tried in Mozambique.
Credit Suisse agreed to pay at least $475 million to British and American authorities in 2021 to settle bribery and kickback claims related to their role in the illegal loans.
A Mozambican court has previously convicted and punished at least eleven people in connection with the scandal, including Ndambi Guebuza, the son of former Mozambican President Armando Guebuza. He received up to $33 million from the illicit arrangement and was sentenced to 12 years in jail.
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