Arrests could hamper Mozambique LNG funding

The impoverished country still faces scrutiny over its ability to handle multi-billion-dollar projects

High profile arrests in early January related to Mozambique's "hidden debts" scandal, made at the request of US prosecutors, are an unsettling reminder that the country still faces questions over its financial credibility. It is something those trying to fund LNG projects based on the massive gas reserves of the Rovuma basin could do without. In early January, former finance minister Manuel Chang was arrested in South Africa, three former Credit Suisse Group bankers were arrested in London and one executive of Lebanese shipbuilding group Privinvest was detained in New York. They face charges in the US linked to a long-running fraud investigation of $2bn in loans to Mozambican state-linked co