Son of former Mozambique president sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud

Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The son of Mozambique's ex-president was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in prison for embezzlement and money laundering.

Judge Efigenio Baptista said Armando Ndambi Guebuza defrauded the government of more than $2.7 million, and is responsible for crimes of money laundering, embezzlement of State funds; use of false documents; four crimes of forgery of other writings; blackmail, influence peddling and association to commit crime.

Guebuza, the oldest son of former Mozambique president Armando Guebuza, was sentenced along with 10 other defendants including the former head of security and intelligence Gregorio Leao.

The corruption case came after three newly state-owned companies got over $2 billion in loans from international banks guaranteed by the Mozambique government without parliamentary approval.

An independent audit in 2017 showed $500 million from that loan went missing.

The former president's private secretary Ines Moiane was also sentenced to 11 years in prison while State Secret Intelligence Services staffer Cipriano Mutota received a 10-year sentence.

Nineteen defendants in all were charged with blackmail, forgery, embezzlement and laundering an estimated $200 million in kickbacks. The bribes in the scandal were paid to several people, including Mozambique government officials and Credit Suisse bankers.

"It is proven that the defendants swindled state funds loaned by Credit Suisse and VTB which were supposed to be used to protect the country's special economic zone," the court ruled.