Maputo, April 15, 2025 (Lusa) - Mozambique's Attorney General's Office has said that former minister Manuel Chang's conviction in the United States for fraud to eight and a half years in prison did not benefit Mozambique because it was "much lower" than the sentence that would have been handed down in Maputo. "As can be seen, the sentence he was given is much lower than if he had been tried in Mozambique, where the sentences for the offences he is accused of vary between eight and 12 years in prison," said an official document from the Mozambican Attorney General's Office, which includes details of the outcome of Chang's case and to which Lusa had access on Tuesday. The former finance minister of Mozambique was sentenced on 17 January this year in Brooklyn, New York, to eight and a half years in prison, including the six years he has already served in the case of the hidden debts. Chang was arrested at Johannesburg's main international airport in South Africa at the end of 2018, shortly before the US indictment became public. The former minister spent around six years in custody while awaiting trial in the US, with the judge recommending that the former minister spend a further two and a half years behind bars before becoming eligible for release and deportation to Mozambique. "Once tried in the United States, Mozambican justice will not be able to try him for the same facts (...) On the other hand, although the conduct of that Mozambican citizen has seriously damaged the Mozambican state financially, as well as its international reputation, it will not be able to be compensated for the losses," reads the document from the Mozambican Public Prosecutor's Office, which recalls that others involved in the hidden debt scandal in Mozambique have been sentenced to between 10 and 12 years. Chang was Mozambique's finance minister under Armando Guebuza, between 2005 and 2010, and is said to have endorsed debts of $2.7 billion (€2.5 billion) secretly contracted in favour of EMATUM, Proindicus and MAM, public companies referred to in the US indictment, allegedly created for this purpose in the maritime security and fisheries sectors, between 2013 and 2014, in a scandal that was only uncovered in 2016. During the trial, US prosecutors accused Chang of collecting $7 million (€6.81 million at the current exchange rate) in bribes, transferred via US banks to an associate's European accounts. The prosecutors argued that Chang and other participants embezzled more than $200 million (€194.6 million) in total, defrauding investors in the US and elsewhere by misrepresenting how the loan proceeds would be used and causing them to suffer substantial losses. Throughout the US proceedings, the defence team claimed that the former minister was doing what his government wanted when he signed the promises that Mozambique would pay back the loans, and that there was no evidence of a financial quid pro quo for the then ruler. In July last year, Mozambique's government said Manuel Chang had returned at least $7 million to the Attorney General's Office. To cancel debts and claim financial compensation, Mozambique also took the case to the British courts, alleging corruption, conspiracy to defraud by unlawful means and dishonest assistance. The London Commercial Court ruled in Mozambique's favour in July last year, determining that the shipping group Privinvest must pay compensation for corruption by former Finance Minister Manuel Chang. The Mozambican Attorney General's Office said at the time that the country is entitled to receive approximately $1.9 billion (€1.8 billion) due to the judgement. According to the World Bank, Mozambique was one of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world for two decades. However, it plunged into financial upheaval after the case, which is considered one of the country's major financial scandals. EAC/ADB // ADB. Lusa