The tuna bonds scandal (also known as the tuna bond affair or the hidden debt scandal) refers to a debt scandal where the company Privinvest and its owner Iskandar Safa are alleged to have paid over $100 million in bribes to officials in Mozambique and to Credit Suisse employees Andrew Pearse, Surjan Singh, and Detelina Subeva for contracts and loans to develop Mozambique's fishing industry and improve maritime security.
[1][2][3] However, later investigations discovered that the loans were backed by undisclosed and illegal state guarantees and a large part of the money was embezzled.
In June 2019 and May 2020, Mozambique's Constitutional Council declared the loans were illegal and void, as they were not approved by the parliament, and ruled that “[n]o expenditure can be assumed, ordered or carried out without being duly registered in the budget of the approved state ... which was not the case.” [4][5][6] In March 2019, three former Mozambican officials and five business executives were indicted in New York for their alleged role in the scheme.
[8] The government of Mozambique brought legal action in the United Kingdom to challenge the validity of the loans, as they were contracted under English law.
In October 2021, Credit Suisse pled guilty to wire fraud and agreed to forgive US$200 million in debt owed by Mozambique to the bank.