- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Radhakrishna N S
An Indian-origin banker, Surjan Singh, 44 is one among the three arrested in London on Thursday (4) and face extradition to the US following alleged role in a $2 billion fraud schemes associated with the firms in Mozambique.
Singh was arrested along with Andrew Pearse, 49 and Detelina Subeva, 37, and charged in an indictment issued by a US district court in New York, according to the US authorities.
All the three accused are the former Credit Suisse bankers, have been released on bail and are facing extradition to the US on the charges. According to the media reports, the scheme involved loans to state-owned firms in Mozambique.
According to the US indictment, through a series of financial transactions during 2013 and 2016, a sum of more than $2bn was borrowed through loans guaranteed by the Mozambican government.
Over the course of the financial transactions, the co-conspirators acted to defraud investors.
The accused created maritime projects as fronts to raise money to enrich themselves, and “intentionally diverted portions of the loan proceeds to pay at least $200 million in bribes and kickbacks to themselves, Mozambican government officials and others,” the indictment reads.
Swiss lender Credit Suisse said its three former staff were accused by the US government of “circumventing our internal controls” in a fraud case linked to the Mozambican government.
“No action has been taken against Credit Suisse. The indictment alleges that the former employees worked to defeat the bank’s internal controls, acted out of a motive of personal profit, and sought to hide these activities from the bank,” the lender said.
