Manuel chang biography
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and he was critical to the loans being approved".
"He cared about money over his position," she told the court.
Previously, three former Credit Suisse bankers pleaded guilty to US charges of money laundering over the "tuna bond" case.
The Mozambican authorities had wanted Chang to be sent back to be tried on home soil, instead of in the US.
He will be sentenced later, potentially facing 20 years in prison.
In late 2021, UK authorities fined the investment bank $178m over the scandal.
The fine was part of a $475m settlement with UK, Swiss and US regulators.
As a result of the fraudulent deal, "a couple of million people were thrown into poverty" and "several billion dollars [was] knocked off economic growth," Richard Messick, who writes the Global Anti-Corruption Blog, told the BBC.
Missing funds to the tune of £500m were siphoned off, according to an independent audit that was ordered by the International Monetary Fund who later withdrew their support from Mozambique.
In a Brooklyn courtroom, far from the warm waters of the Indian Ocean where Mozambique’s ghost ships now drift, a jury saw through the complex web of lies and money laundering.
The verdict was clear: guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The Mozambican authorities had wanted Chang to be sent back to be tried on home soil, instead of in the US.
He will be sentenced later, potentially facing 20 years in prison.
It is still not known what happened to that money.
Mozambique is rich in natural resources - thanks to large offshore gas reserves, ruby mines and more.
Chang was arrested in South Africa in 2018, and extradited to the US the following year to face fraud and money-laundering charges.
But beneath the surface of legitimate-looking contracts lurked a dark undertow of corruption.
The scheme was elegant in its deception. But the long arm of the law proved longer than his evasions. Working with Privinvest Group, a UAE shipbuilding company, Chang orchestrated a dance of documents and declarations that convinced investors to pour money into three companies: Proindicus, EMATUM, and MAM.
On paper, they were the vehicles of Mozambique’s maritime renaissance. In late 2021, UK authorities fined the investment bank $178m over the scandal.
The fine was part of a $475m settlement with UK, Swiss and US regulators.
As a result of the fraudulent deal, "a couple of million people were thrown into poverty" and "several billion dollars [was] knocked off economic growth," Richard Messick, who writes the Global Anti-Corruption Blog, told the BBC.
Missing funds to the tune of £500m were siphoned off, according to an independent audit that was ordered by the International Monetary Fund who later withdrew their support from Mozambique.
Its economy has grown steadily in recent years but it still ranks as one of the poorer nations on the African continent.
In a statement on Thursday, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace, said: "Today's verdict is an inspiring victory for justice and the people of Mozambique who were betrayed by the defendant, a corrupt, high-ranking government official whose greed and self-interest sold out one of the poorest countries in the world."
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The maritime projects that promised so much delivered only debt and disappointment, while investors worldwide counted their losses.Chang’s story ends not with the bang of triumph he once envisioned, but with the quiet whisper of shame.
It is still not known what happened to that money.
Mozambique is rich in natural resources - thanks to large offshore gas reserves, ruby mines and more. Each count carries up to 20 years, though Chang’s sentence fell to 8 years – perhaps a merciful term for a 68-year-old man, but an eternity for someone who once commanded his nation’s wealth.
Today, as Mozambique struggles to repay over $700 million in defaulted loans, its people bear the weight of Chang’s betrayal.
THE marble floors of Mozambique’s Ministry of Finance once echoed with the confident footsteps of Manuel Chang, a man who held his nation’s purse strings and, with them, the dreams of millions. Every missed payment, every defaulted loan, represents schools unbuilt, hospitals unequipped, roads unpaved. In reality, they were vessels for vast corruption.
More than $200 million vanished into a labyrinth of bribes and kickbacks.
In his prison cell, he has time to contemplate how the same signature that once guaranteed billions now signs commissary requests, and how the man who once financed a nation now counts days instead of dollars.
It’s a stark reminder that corruption’s true cost isn’t measured in stolen millions, but in stolen dreams – the dreams of a nation’s poorest citizens who deserved better from those entrusted with their future.
Mozambique ex-minister guilty of one of Africa's biggest scandals
- Author, Natasha Booty & David Bamford
- Role, BBC News
A US court has convicted a Mozambican former finance minister over a 10-year-old conspiracy that triggered the worst economic crisis in his home country since independence.
Manuel Chang was found guilty of accepting pay-offs through US banks for approving secret loans.
The loans were intended to pay for a fleet of tuna fishing ships and other projects, leading to the affair being dubbed the "tuna bond" scandal.
But the loans were plundered, leaving Mozambique $2bn (£1.5bn) in debt.
The $2 billion in loans, backed by the full faith of Mozambique’s government, were supposed to transform the nation’s maritime sector. With each signature guaranteeing massive loans from Credit Suisse and other banks, he wasn’t just signing documents – he was signing away his country’s future.