The long-running saga of Mozambique’s catastrophic “tuna bonds” scandal has entered a new and decisive chapter. Swiss prosecutors announced on December 1 that Credit Suisse-now absorbed into UBS Group AG-is being charged for what authorities describe as deep and systemic organizational failures that enabled large-scale money laundering tied to one of Africa’s most notorious financial frauds. Nearly a decade after the first suspicious loans were issued, the scandal continues to reverberate globally, exposing the devastating consequences of unchecked banking practices and international corruption.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) said its investigation uncovered serious compliance breakdowns at Credit Suisse, particularly within its anti-money laundering (AML) and risk-management systems. According to prosecutors, these deficiencies directly facilitated the movement of criminal funds linked to more than $2 billion in loans issued to Mozambican state-owned companies between 2013 and 2016. Those loans-intended, at least on paper, for maritime security, tuna fishing operations, and broader coastal protection-masked a vast network of bribery, kickbacks and illicit enrichment among officials, bankers, and executives across multiple continents.

The scandal first came to light in 2016, when Mozambique suddenly revealed the existence of more than $1 billion in previously undisclosed government-backed loans arranged by Credit Suisse and the Russian investment bank VTB. These debts, secretly contracted under the administration of former Finance Minister Manuel Chang, were guaranteed by the Mozambican state but never properly........

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