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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC Video

FEDERAL COURTHOUSE, Dec 2 – As international bribery scandals particularly in Portuguese speaking countries involving UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his family expand but are not acted on by US prosecutors, apparently due to immunity, their EDNY case against Jean Boustani regarding Mozambique resulted on December 2 in not guilty verdicts.

  Amid Guterres' cover-up of his role in Lisbon based Gulbenkian Foundation's attempted sale of its Partex Oil and Gas' operations in Angola and elsewhere, there's been this other case in Federal Court in New York City, this time in Brooklyn, with another UN bribery echo. Here's the (redacted) indictment. On December 2 an EDNY jury acquitted Boustani of three counts: conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering.   Boustani testified and admitted to making payments to officials in Mozambique but denied that he defrauded investors.  Credit Suisse's Global Financing Group's Andrew Pearse, Detelina Subeva and Surjan Singh pled guilty; Pearse and Singh testified for the prosecution at Boustani's trial.  Three former officials of Mozambique, including ex-Finance Minister Manuel Chang, are also charged in the case, as is Privinvest's chief financial officer, Najib Allam, but they have not made U.S. court appearances. Chang has been detained in South Africa pending possible extradition to the U.S.  The government was represented by Hiral D. Mehta and Mark E. Bini of the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, Sean W. O'Donnell and Margaret Moeser of DOJ's Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section as well as David M. Fuhr and Katherine Nielsen of DOJ's Fraud Section.  Boustani was represented by Randall Jackson, Michael S. Schachter, Casey E. Donnelly and Philip F. DiSanto of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Daniel Gitner of Lankler Siffert & Wohl LLP.  The case is US v. Boustani et al., 18-cr-00681 (Kuntz).

  Now Credit Suisse has claimed that the loan of 622 million US dollars that it extended in 2013 to the fraudulent Mozambican company Proindicus is legitimate, and the Mozambican government must pay up for defaulting on the loan.  Credit Suisse was replying this week in a London court to the case made by the government that the loan was illegal, and that it is Credit Suisse that should reimburse Mozambique, and not the other way round.  According to a report by the Portuguese news agency Lusa, Credit Suisse argues that the Mozambican government guarantee for the Proindicus loan is binding, and that the bank is entitled to the payment of damages.

 What Lusa does not report is Antonio Guterres' links not only to UN briber CEFC China Energy, but the money he took from Angola's dos Santos family to get / buy the UNSG position. We'll have more on this.

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