Swiss authorities on Monday announced the indictment of a former Credit Suisse official for alleged money laundering linked to state companies in Mozambique, while also charging the bank with failing to prevent the scheme.
Credit Suisse, now part of UBS following a 2023 merger, had provided loans totalling more than $2 billion to three state owned companies in Mozambique in 2013. Three years later, the arrangements became known as the “Mozambique Debt Scandal,” prompting the Swiss attorney general’s office to open a criminal investigation in 2020.
The indictment issued on 25 November focuses on the 2013 transfer of nearly $7.9 million from Mozambique’s Ministry of Economy and Finance into a Credit Suisse account in Switzerland. Most of the money was subsequently moved to accounts in the United Arab Emirates, the attorney general’s office said.
According to prosecutors, the Credit Suisse compliance officer was aware of several indicators that the funds from Mozambique “could be of felonious origin,” but recommended that senior bank managers should not report the transaction to Switzerland’s money laundering reporting office, MROS, and instead “terminate” the commercial relationship.
Credit Suisse ultimately reported the matter to MROS in 2019, only after the United States Justice Department announced criminal proceedings linked to the Mozambique loans.
The attorney general’s office said the negligence of the compliance officer, who has not been named, enabled the funds to be laundered. It added that Credit Suisse did not take “required and reasonable” measures to stop it. UBS has now been charged with being “criminally liable.”
In an email response, UBS said: “We firmly reject the Office of the Attorney General’s conclusions and will vigorously defend our position.”
Prosecutors said they are also conducting criminal proceedings against two additional individuals connected to the Mozambique case.
The scandal was one of multiple issues that weakened Credit Suisse and contributed to the emergency takeover by UBS in 2023. UBS has since dealt with a series of inherited problems, including fines linked to Credit Suisse’s relationship with the collapsed hedge fund Archegos Capital Management in 2021.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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