A former bank manager jailed for the murder of Mozambique journalist Carlos Cardoso, who was probing the country’s biggest bank fraud, admitted on Friday that he was involved in the $14-million scandal.
Vicente Ramaya, a former branch manager of the state bank Banco Commercial de Mocambique (BCM), from where the money was siphoned off before it was privatised in 1996, told a Maputo court that he had performed several illegal operations.
He said these mostly involved fraudulent cheques and the sale of large amounts of dollars ”but I was only obeying superiors’ orders”.
The trial of those involved in the fraud is the culmination of years of tortuous investigations, which at times were sabotaged by organised criminals who infiltrated the country’s judiciary and the police.
Prosecutors say they opened fake bank accounts and used false documentation to loot the BCM.
Ramaya is regarded as the mastermind of the whole operation.
He is also accused of disorganising all the case papers before his arrest some years ago by involving corrupt prosecutors.
One of those prosecutors, Diamantino dos Santos, is on the run after the government ordered his arrest.
According to prosecutors, the BCM case is closely related to Cardoso’s murder.
Cardoso was gunned down in Maputo as he probed the case and exerted pressure on the Mozambican authorities to speed up their efforts to identify the culprits and bring them to book.
In addition to investigating the banking scandal Cardoso had been vocal in denouncing illegal schemes in which Mozambican trade was used as a cover for a number of shady deals, including ones involving drugs.
Ramaya, already serving a 24-year sentence for his role in Cardoso’s 2000 murder, said he was following orders from bosses such as Alberto Calu, a senior manager at the bank.
”I am not trying to gain any dividends from this or to get myself freed, but the truth must be told,” he said.
Ramaya told the court that of the 67 cheques used to fraudulently withdraw money from his branch, Calu had given the green light for 65.
Momad Abdul Satar, also serving a 24-year sentence for ordering Cardoso’s murder, told the court he had all the copies of the cheques and other documentation used in the fraud.
He confessed to have fraudulently withdrawn large sums of money and opening false bank accounts in collaboration with his fugitive elder brother Aslam Satar, believed to be hiding in Dubai.
More than 15 people, most of them businessmen, are accused of involvement in the fraud. ‒ Sapa-AFP