Mozambique ex-minister guilty of one of Africa's biggest scandals

2 days ago

Natasha Booty & David Bamford

A US court has convicted a Mozambican former finance minister over a 10-year-old conspiracy that triggered the worst economic crisis in his home country since independence.

Manuel Chang was found guilty of accepting pay-offs through US banks for approving secret loans. The loans were intended to pay for a fleet of tuna fishing ships and other projects, leading to the affair being dubbed the "tuna bond" scandal.

But the loans were plundered, leaving Mozambique $2bn (£1.5bn) in debt.Chang was arrested in South Africa in 2018, and extradited to the US the following year to face fraud and money-laundering charges.

The Mozambican authorities had wanted Chang to be sent back to be tried on home soil, instead of in the US.(why did the US take it over, what was the US's involvement? Something fishy on the fishing boats matter)

He will be sentenced later, potentially facing 20 years in prison. Chang had denied the charges and his lawyers say he plans to appeal the verdict.

Analysts say it is one of the biggest corruption cases seen on the African continentTen other people have been imprisoned in Mozambique over the scandal, including the son of then-President Armando Guebuza.

The loans were issued by Credit Suisse and the Russian bank VTB and guaranteed by the Mozambican government.But some of these loans were not disclosed and were signed off by Chang during his term as finance minister between 2005 and 2015. (Was Hunter and Joe Bidan involved in this?)

The court in New York heard that Chang had pocketed $7m in bribes from the shipbuilding firm Privinvest, but his lawyer said there was no evidence Chang had received "a single penny" and said the projects were approved former President Guebuza and other ministers.

But in her closing arguments on Monday, the prosecuting assistant US attorney Genny Ngai said Chang had personally "signed all of the loan guarantees… and he was critical to the loans being approved".

"He cared about money over his position," she told the court.

Previously, three former Credit Suisse bankers pleaded guilty to US charges of money laundering over the "tuna bond" case.In late 2021, UK authorities fined the investment bank $178m over the scandal.

The fine was part of a $475m settlement with UK, Swiss and US regulators.

As a result of the fraudulent deal, "a couple of million people were thrown into poverty" and "several billion dollars [was] knocked off economic growth," Richard Messick, who writes the Global Anti-Corruption Blog, told the BBC.

Missing funds to the tune of £500m were siphoned off, according to an independent audit that was ordered by the International Monetary Fund who later withdrew their support from Mozambique. It is still not known what happened to that money. (The Bidan got it an ran.dig request)

Mozambique is rich in natural resources - thanks to large offshore gas reserves, ruby mines and more. Its economy has grown steadily in recent years but it still ranks as one of the poorer nations on the African continent.

In a statement on Thursday, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace, said: "Today's verdict is an inspiring victory for justice and the people of Mozambique who were betrayed by the defendant, a corrupt, high-ranking government official whose greed and self-interest sold out one of the poorest countries in the world.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c23l8g849mvo

Trump War Room

@TrumpWarRoom

DISGUSTING: CNN's @brikeilarcnn attacks JD Vance's military service in a despicable effort to defend Tim Walz's stolen valor lies.

Brianna — the difference is that

@JDVance never lied about his rank or his service, and when his unit deployed to Iraq, he didn't abandon them.

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12:35 PM · Aug 8, 2024

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https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1821586107857031300

How low can CNN go?

>>21391108

One day later Brianna apologizes

Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱

@BrentHBaker

Brianna Keilar @brikeilarcnn: “The Trump campaign is swift boating Tim Walz. Attacks on JD Vance’s service are also offensive. JD Vance served honorably in Iraq, a combat zone where anything can happen.” That he escaped any real fighting “doesn’t make his service less than.”

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3:51 PM · Aug 9, 2024

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https://x.com/BrentHBaker/status/1821997830262682059

Scottsdale Police looking for woman accused of stealing over $30,000 from school PTA account

Fri, August 9, 2024 at 3:13 PM EDT

Nubia Gonzalez (Courtesy: Scottsdale Police Department)

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Scottsdale Police officials are asking for the public's help, as they try to find a woman who is accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from a parent teacher association's bank account.

In a statement we received on Aug. 9, a Scottsdale Police spokesperson identified the woman they are looking for as Nubia Gonzalez.

An investigation into the alleged theft began on July 3, when Scottsdale Police received a fraud call for the president of Cocopah Middle School's PTA, who said she noticed the PTA's savings account was zeroed out on July 2.

"With assistance from the bank, she realized that several substantial withdrawals had been made from the PTA savings / checking accountsbetween the dates of [June 28, 2024] and [July 1, 2024]." Scottsdale Police wrote.

Gonzalez, according to police, was elected as the PTA's treasurer in April, andwas given control over the PTA's bank accounts on June 28.(the day she started)

"The total combined loss between both accounts at this time is over $36,500," police wrote. "Numerous parents, school employees and police have tried to reach out to Nubia, however their phone numbers are no longer in service. The address she gave to Scottsdale Unified school district (located in Scottsdale) was also fraudulent after numerous detectives attempted to contact Nubia at her listed address."

=•=Anyone with information on Gonzalez's whereabouts should call Scottsdale Police at (490) 312-TIPS.==

https://www.yahoo.com/news/scottsdale-police-looking-woman-accused-191342666.html

Silicon Valley's political divide is now public — and petty

Fri, August 9, 2024 at 1:05 PM EDT

The growing partisan divide in Silicon Valley is playing out in messy, public social-media battles.

Insults have grown personal, a new trend in a sector that usually bickers in private.

The vast wealth in Silicon Valley simmers beneath the debates and emergent partisan divide.

In a LinkedIn post from late July, the venture capitalist Rob Day reminded his followers that "we as longtime investors tend not to criticize each other."

During this election cycle, at least, that's no longer the case. Some of Silicon Valley's biggest names are now waging partisan battles for all the internet to see.

Day was reacting to famed investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who declared their support for former President Donald Trump in a nearly 90-minute podcast episode, and the resulting dispute that played out mostly on social media.

Though Silicon Valley, nestled in the deep-blue Bay Area, has long been considered a liberal bastion, Andreessen and Horowitz are part of a rightward tilt among some of tech's biggest names.They're joined by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the venture capitalist David Sacks, and PayPal's cofounder Peter Thiel, among others.

"I think the divide is new, but the principles on which it's built are not," said Fred Turner, a communications professor at Stanford University who recently coauthored the book "Seeing Silicon Valley: Life Inside a Fraying America."

Turner said that many successful tech companies are based on a technocratic ideology in which one expert exerts almost singular dominance: "The deep story, I think, is the way in which success in technocratic enterprise can seem to people on the outside to be models for political life."

As disagreements swirl about regulation, AI safety, and crypto crackdowns, Silicon Valley's darlings are becoming more invested in — and vocal about — politics overall. Musk exemplifies this transformation. He said in 2015 that he tried to avoid getting involved in Washington but is now supporting Trump's campaign with his words and his wallet.

This shift has ignited public spats for all to witness.

Debates that used to be held in private are now public

Silicon Valley used to air its dirty laundry in private, if at all, rather than in lengthy threads on X.

"I think that there's conversations in public among circles that normally have those in private, but I'm not a part of that," Leslie Feinzaig, a venture capitalist who founded the group VCsForKamala, told Business Insider. In part, she formed the organization in response to her sector's rightward shift and the resulting fallout.

Many in Silicon Valley, such as the LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman and Box CEO Aaron Levie, have aligned themselves against Trump. Some have even joined VCsForKamala, but not all of them share Feinzaig's commitment to staying out of public spats.

Hoffman and Sacks, both members of the so-called PayPal mafia who once worked side by side, are now publicly feuding over politics.

On June 6, Sacks shared a 23-paragraph post on X endorsing Trump and announcing a fundraising event for the former president. Hoffman wasted no time responding with a lengthy social-media post of his own, in which he said that Sacks "got it wrong on just about every count."

Hoffman attacked Sacks' multipart argument and didn't mince words: "In tech, we call this 'being wrong.'"

That was only the beginning…

https://www.yahoo.com/news/silicon-valleys-political-divide-now-093102804.html

>>21391278

2/2continued

A new tone to Silicon Valley political discourse

The public disputes intensified after Andreessen and Horowitz released their podcast episode on July 16. Disagreements again spilled onto X when the venture capitalist Roger McNamee shared an article titled "The Moral Bankruptcy of Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz."

"Really Roger? We've known each other for 25 years, you invested in my company, you have my cell #, and your very first idea when we disagree is to attack me in a tweet? Good to know I guess," Horowitz responded.

A day later, the insults got more personal.

Paul Graham, the computer scientist and founder of the venture-capital firm Y Combinator, asked in a now-deleted postwhether Sacks is "the most evil person in Silicon Valley."

Sacks didn't roll over. In an X post of his own, hecalled Graham "a bully and maybe something much worse."

Other tech figures, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, began to take sides, throwing their weight behind either Graham or Sacks and drawing even more attention to the public fight.

Then, on July 31, David Marcus, the former president of PayPal, decided that it was his turn to post a detailed open letter on X. He explained why he's endorsing Trump, saying that he "broke free" from old mental frameworks and that he has undergone "a gradual political 180."

Levie, the Box CEO, responded: "Lots of fair feedback here that I hope the democrats listen to." Earlier that day, Levie had posted separately on X that he saw a legitimate shift in Silicon Valley toward Harris, who had just become the presumptive nominee after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.Leaders saw her, he said, as "a more stable, pro tech, pro business President" compared to Trump.(they are crazy to believe that or anything she says==)

Despite Levie's apparent interest in listening and speaking across the partisan divide, Joe Lonsdale, the cofounder of Palantir, shot back that the argument was "silly" and called Harris anti-business.

"VCs went from very few pro-Trump to about half!"Lonsdale said. Levie replied, and other tech leaders chimed in on the drawn-out thread.

While some of the back-and-forth is taking place on more organized forums and in more careful language — Hoffman, for example, published an op-ed in The Economist — most of it is playing out in the messy, typo-ridden, impulsive world of social media.

"I just felt like in our industry the conversation had turned very mudsling-y, and that's not at all anything I want to be a part of," Feinzaig said of the recent trend.

Feinzaig said she doesn't think Silicon Valley is turning conservative, but rather that people have nuanced views and that conservative voices have recently become more comfortable speaking out.

Money simmers beneath the partisan divide

Turner, the Stanford professor, attributes some of the shift to purely monetary incentives.

"These leaders are about making money," he said. "If the political winds shift right in Washington, it can behoove tech leaders to shift to the right as well."

The relationship, he said, does not only go in one direction, as politicians are well attuned to the vast wealth nestled in Northern California.

"Money, money, money makes the world go round!" he said, quoting the musical "Cabaret." "It just does. Politicians need money in amounts that, for some Silicon Valley leaders like Elon Musk, are actually trivial. I think that that's something that's really important to remember."

Already, that money is talking. Andreessen and Horowitz announced that they're giving millions to Trump.Reed Hastings, the cofounder of Netflix, donated $7 million to a PAC affiliated with Harris.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/silicon-valleys-political-divide-now-093102804.html