State was injured in 2.2 billion dollars

Testifying for the second day, during the trial of 19 people charged with crimes arising from the scandal of Mozambique’s “hidden debts”, businessman Bruno Langa opted to keep his mouth shut. Interrogated by the Mozambique Bar Association (OAM), which is assisting the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Langa simply refused to answer any questions. The OAM asked him 27 questions, and to each of them Langa replied “I shall not answer the question”.

The OAM asked about his business training and experience: what was there in his experience which led the Abu Dhabi based group, Privinvest, to appoint him as a consultant on its project to provide protection to the Mozambican Exclusive Economic Zone?

The prosecution believe that Privinvest was interested in Langa, not because of any business acumen, but because of his personal contacts.

For Langa is a close friend of Ndambi Guebuza, the oldest son of former President, Armando Guebuza, and this connection was used to bring the Privinvest project to the notice of the then President. 

Langa signed his consultant’s contract with Privinvest in January 2012, and on 25 March 2013, he was paid what is politely called a “fee” of 8.5 million US dollars into the account he had opened at First Gulf Bank in Abi Dhabi. What services had Langa actually provided for Privinvest in the 14 months between January 2012 and March 2013?, asked the OAM. But answer came there none. The 8.5 million dollars entered Langa’s account just four days after the bank Credit Suisse had sent 327.9 million dollars to Privinvest. Asked to comment on this interesting coincidence, Langa was, of course, silent.

The Credit Suisse millions were money paid under the contract with Proindicus, the first of three fraudulent, security-related Mozambican companies that are at the heart of the “hidden debts” scandal. One of the peculiarities of this contract is that the money was not sent directly to Proindicus, but to Privinvest, which was the sole contractor for the three fraudulent companies. Privinvest than sent patrol boats and other assets to Mozambique which an independent audit later discovered had been grossly overvalued

The OAM asked Langa if he had paid any income tax on the money deposited in his Abu Dhabi account, or even declared this income to the Mozambican Tax Authority (AT). “Did you not feel you were involved in something that damaged Mozambique?”, the OAM asked. Would he pay any money back to the Mozambican state? To all these questions, the answers were a sepulchral silence. The judge, Efigenio Baptista, said that Langa was within his rights not to answer questions, “but when defendants do answer, they help the court take its decisions”.

He added that when it comes to sentencing, one of the mitigating factors that courts take into account is confession. A defendant who admits his crimes is unlikely to receive the maximum sentence, Baptista remarked. This did not persuade Langa to be much more forthcoming. Under questioning from the defence lawyers, he replied to most of them with the one word “no”. Did he know his fellow defendants? No. Had he formed a group with them? No. Did a certain email address belong to him?

No.