Credit Suisse Banker Pleads Guilty in Mozambique Loan Scandal
international |
economics and finance |
news report
Monday July 22, 2019 23:08
by Kate Zeller - Jubilee USA Network
On Friday, former Credit Suisse banker Andrew Pearse pled guilty in US Federal Court for accepting millions of dollars in a fraud scheme that led to a $2 billion Mozambique loan scandal and debt crisis in the East African country.
Washington DC - On Friday, former Credit Suisse banker Andrew Pearse pled guilty in US Federal Court for accepting millions of dollars in a fraud scheme that led to a $2 billion Mozambique loan scandal and debt crisis in the East African country. Pearse and six others are accused of taking $200 million in the scheme.
“Mozambique, one of the poorest countries in the world, is dealing with a financial crisis because of the greed of corrupt bankers," said United Nations corruption and finance expert Eric LeCompte and Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network. “This behavior is only possible because of a lack of global loan transparency and a lack of public budget transparency in Mozambique.”
US prosecutors argue that Credit Suisse and Russian-based VTB finance group hid secret loans to the Mozambique government by bribing bank and government officials. The loans were supposed to support the tuna fishing industry, but instead supported the outfitting of boats for military attack crafts. When the secret loans to Mozambique were revealed in 2016, the IMF and World Bank cut ties with the country, halting development funding. This year, Mozambique was hit with two cyclones further impacting the debt ridden and poverty stricken country.
"Mozambique is struggling to recover from a debt crisis and terrible natural disasters," noted LeCompte.
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Jump To Comment: 1This form of financial colonialism was well documented by John Perkins who worked for the World Bank and eventually his conscience got the better of him and he revealed all in his book. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
And many years earlier the economist Michael Hudson wrote in 1972: Super imperialism : the economic strategy of American empire
So giving loans to poor countries to make them poorer and use it as a means to steal all their resources has been part of the plan all along. It is unclear why now they are putting people on trial in court. Perhaps it is American banks are competing with European banks in the robbery and Trump has ordered behind the scenes the investigation so that the competition is removed and American banks can get in there and doing the robbing.