An international arrest warrant has been issued for the Lebanese businessman Jean Boustani, one of the key executives in the Abu Dhabi-based group, Privinvest, and is currently in the hands of Interpol, according to a report in Thursday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”. Boustani is wanted in connection with Mozambique’s greatest financial scandal, the “hidden debts”. This scheme, whereby three fraudulent, security-linked companies, Proindicus, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management), obtained over 2.2 billion dollars in loans from the banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia, on the basis of illegal loan guarantees issued by the government of the time, led by then President Armando Guebuza, was largely orchestrated by Privinvest.
Privinvest was the main winner from the corrupt deal, since it became the sole contractor for the three companies. All the loan money was sent, not to the Maputo offices of the companies, but to Privinvest, which then provided Mozambique with vastly overpriced assets (such as fishing boats, patrol boats and radars). According to an independent audit of Proindicus, Ematum and MAM in 2017, Privinvest over-invoiced Mozambique by more than 700 million dollars. According to United States prosecutors investigating the scandal, at least 200 million dollars of the loan money was used to pay bribes and kickbacks. Boustani handled the bribes. The Maputo City Court, currently trying 19 people for their alleged role in the “hidden debts”, has heard this week of how Boustani arranged a bribe of 50 million dollars – 33 million for Ndambi Guebuza, the oldest son of former President Guebuza, and 8.5 million each to the shadowy business figures Teofilo Nhangumela and Bruno Langa.
Judicial sources contacted by “Noticias” said that Interpol is waiting for the best opportunity to serve the arrest warrant. This may not prove easy – Privinvest is well connected in official circles in Lebanon, and particularly in its operational base of Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. The Privinvest Chief Executive Officer, Iskandar Safa, is a close friend of the Abu Dhabi royal family. The Mozambican Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) has repeatedly summoned Boustani to appear in Mozambique – first to provide information to the auditors from the company Kroll Associates, who were investigating the three fraudulent companies, and then to appear before preliminary hearings into an additional case arising from the “hidden debts” in which he is one of the accused. Boustani ignored every summons sent by the PGR. His current whereabouts are unknown.
US prosecutors did catch up with Boustani in 2019, and put him on trial in New York on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud and securities fraud. The American prosecutors could show, with a massive haul of intercepted emails and bank documentation, that Boustani was a key figure in massive bribery, paying off Credit Suisse bankers and Mozambican officials, including the then Finance Minister Manuel Chang.
Boustani made no attempt to deny the veracity
of the documents. Instead he relied on clever lawyers arguing that, since the
crimes did not take place in the United States, and Boustani had never set foot
in the US before, he could not be guilty. This was a successful appeal to the
jurors’ ignorance of US anti-corruption legislation, which does not depend on
where the crime was committed. The Maputo City Court wants Boustani to testify
as a witness in the current “hidden debts” trial, by video-conference, if he
cannot attend in person.
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