Former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang was sentenced to more than eight years in prison on Friday in connection with a graft scandal that sparked an economic crisis in his home country.
Chang, 69, was convicted in a US court in August for his role in the so-called “hidden debt” scandal that saw the Mozambican government contract $2 billion in secret loans in 2013 and 2014 from international banks to buy a tuna-fishing fleet and surveillance vessels.
The loans were hidden from parliament, but the debt came to light in 2016, prompting donors, including the IMF and the World Bank, to turn off financial support.
The scandal triggered Mozambique’s worst economic crisis since independence from Portugal four decades earlier.
An independent audit later found that $500 million had been diverted and remained unaccounted for.
According to the Justice Department, Chang and his co-conspirators…
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