According to Bloomberg, the financial information agency, Credit Suisse’s European unit has been blamed for its role in a loan-raising scandal that diverted money from Mozambique’s public treasury and plunged the country into an economic and financial crisis.
Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit electronic fraud during a hearing held today in a Brooklyn, New York, courtroom, on the same day as the Swiss bank headquarters agreed with the US Department of Justice to postpone the trial for three years.
Thus, Credit Suisse will pay about 475 million US dollars, equivalent to 408 million euros, in the agreement concluded today with financial jurisdictions in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, according to Bloomberg, which cites sources close to the operation.
Adds the Financial Information Agency, which quoted the bank’s lawyer as confirming the conviction of the financial institution, and it is expected that the details of the agreement will be revealed in the coming days.
The bank “willfully and intentionally agreed to participate in a scheme to violate the Act on Fraudulent International Transfers of Funds by participating in a scheme to obtain funds through false and fraudulent statements.”
“Some employees and agents committed acts, including payments that went through New York’s Eastern District,” Alan Rieffenberg said, as the case went to court in 2018.
In April 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported that Mozambique issued sovereign guarantees on loans worth about US$2.2 billion, or about €1.9 billion, higher than has been reported so far. And outside international institutions and national authorities.
The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the donor community subsequently suspended financial assistance to the country, which ended up falling into financial default in the installments related to $727.5 million (624 million euros) issued in Ematum’s sovereign debt. Bonds, in February of the following year.
This financial crisis led to a series of lawsuits against Credit Suisse and against the Russian VTB Bank, which were launched by the Prosecutor General’s Office, but the banks also put the state in the dock for non-payment, arguing that the fate and application of the borrower’s funds are not his responsibility.
Within the scope of hidden debts, the Mozambican judiciary charges 19 defendants in the main proceedings with joining a “gang” and squandered the Mozambican state by $2.7 billion (€2.28 billion) – an amount indicated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and more than the US$2.2 million known so far in the case – It was collected from international banks through guarantees provided by the government.
Hidden debts were contracted between 2013 and 2014 with British branches of investment banks Credit Suisse and VTB by Mozambican state companies Proindicus, Ematum and MAM.
The loans were secretly secured by the Frelimo government led by then President Armando Guebuza without the knowledge of Parliament and the Administrative Court. ??????
MBA // VM
Lusa / end