Pearse and Singh are formerly managing directors of Credit Suisse in London. They were indicted in the USA along with three former government officials from Mozambique and others with a range of bribery offences and money laundering. The indictments were handed down in March 2019. Pearse pleaded guilty in July that year and Singh followed suit in September. 

The announcement of the indictment included the following statements:

• An indictment was unsealed on March 4, 2019, charging Najib Allam, an executive of the Privinvest family of maritime services companies, and Teofilo Nhangumele and Antonio do Rosario, former Mozambican government officials, for their roles in a USD2,000 million fraud and money laundering scheme that victimised investors in the United States and around the world.  The indictment was previously unsealed on January 3, 2019 as to co-defendants Jean Boustani, a Privinvest executive, Manuel Chang, the former Finance Minister of Mozambique and Andrew Pearse, Surjan Singh and Detelina Subeva, former high-ranking investment bankers at an international investment bank (the Investment Bank).  Each defendant is charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.  In addition, Boustani, Allam, Chang, do Rosario, Pearse, Singh and Subeva are charged with securities fraud conspiracy.  Pearse, Singh and Subeva are also charged with conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery and internal controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
• the defendants orchestrated an immense fraud and bribery scheme that took advantage of the United States financial system, defrauded its investors and adversely impacted the economy of Mozambique, in order to line their own pockets with hundreds of millions of dollars,” - United States Attorney Donoghue.
• a brazen international criminal scheme in which corrupt Mozambique government officials, corporate executives, and investment bankers stole approximately $200 million in loan proceeds that were meant to benefit the people of Mozambique,” - Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski.
• The indictment alleges that between approximately 2013 and 2016, Boustani, Allam, Nhangumele, do Rosario, Chang, Pearse, Singh, Subeva and their co-conspirators ensured that the Investment Bank, and another foreign investment bank, would arrange for more than USD2,000 million to be extended, in three loans, to companies owned and controlled by the Mozambican government:  Proindicus S.A. (Proindicus), Empresa Moçambicana de Atum, S.A. (EMATUM) and Mozambique Asset Management (MAM).  The proceeds of the loans were intended to fund three maritime projects for which Privinvest was to provide the equipment and services.  Specifically, Proindicus was to perform coastal surveillance, EMATUM was to engage in tuna fishing and MAM was to build and maintain shipyards.
• Instead, the defendants and their conspirators illegally facilitated Privinvest’s criminal diversion of more than USD200 million of the proceeds of the loans.  These stolen funds included more than USD150 million that Privinvest — at the direction of Boustani, Allam and others — used to bribe Chang, Nhangumele, do Rosario and other Mozambican government officials to ensure that companies owned and controlled by the Mozambican government would enter into the loan arrangements, and that the government of Mozambique would guarantee those loans.  In addition, Privinvest diverted approximately USD50 million in kickback payments to Pearse, Singh and Subeva, who assisted the conspirators to obtain financing for the loans through the Investment Bank and the other foreign investment bank.  The loans were subsequently sold in whole or in part to investors worldwide, including in the United States.  In doing so, the participants in the scheme conspired to defraud these investors by misrepresenting how the loan proceeds would be used, the amount and maturity dates of other financial obligations held by Mozambique and the ability of the government of Mozambique to repay the loans. 

The Defendants

1. Boustani, a citizen and resident of Lebanon and Antigua and Barbuda, was the lead salesperson and negotiator for Privinvest, and is charged for his role in coordinating the payment by Privinvest of more than $200 million in bribe and kickback payments to Mozambican government officials and investment bankers in order to facilitate the three loans.  He is alleged to have personally received at least $15 million from the scheme.  Boustani was arrested in Queens, New York on January 2, 2019 and arraigned later that day in federal court in Brooklyn.  Boustani has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and a trial date has not yet been set.
2. Allam, a citizen of Lebanon, was the Chief Financial Officer of Privinvest, and is charged for his role in helping Boustani and others coordinate the payment by Privinvest of more than $200 million in bribe and kickback payments.  Allam remains at large.
3. Nhangumele, a citizen and resident of Mozambique, acted in an official capacity on behalf of the President of Mozambique during the charged scheme, and is charged for his role in facilitating the payment by Privinvest of over $150 million to Mozambican government officials to gain approval for the maritime projects, and to cause Mozambique to borrow more than $2 billion from the two investment banks in government-guaranteed loans to finance the projects.  Nhangumele has not yet been arrested on the charges in this indictment and Nhangumele is not currently in U.S. custody.   
4. Do Rosario, a citizen and resident of Mozambique, held positions within the Mozambican government, including with the Mozambican state intelligence service, known as “SISE,” and managerial roles for each of the three state-owned entities formed to undertake the maritime projects that are the subject of the indictment.  He is charged for his role in ensuring that Mozambique would undertake the maritime projects and award the contracts for those projects to Privinvest, and that Finance Minister Chang would issue government guarantees binding Mozambique to repay $2 billion in loans to undertake the projects.  He is alleged to have personally received more than $12 million from the scheme.  Do Rosario has not yet been arrested on the charges in this indictment and is not currently in U.S. custody.
5. Chang, a citizen and resident of Mozambique, was the former Finance Minister of Mozambique, and is charged for signing guarantees on behalf of Mozambique for the three corrupt loans.  He is alleged to have personally received at least $5 million from the scheme.  Chang was arrested on December 29, 2018, in South Africa, pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant issued at the request of the United States.  The United States is seeking his extradition.
6. Pearse, a citizen of New Zealand, Singh, a citizen of the United Kingdom and Subeva, a citizen of Bulgaria, reside in the United Kingdom.  At the time of the charged scheme, Pearse and Singh were managing directors, and Subeva was a vice president, of the Investment Bank.  Each has been charged for facilitating bribe payments to government officials in Mozambique and for circumventing the internal accounting controls of the Investment Bank, which arranged two of the three loans.  Pearse, Singh and Subeva were arrested on January 3, 2019, in the United Kingdom, pursuant to provisional arrest warrants issued at the request of the United States.  The United States is seeking their extradition.

Pearse and Singh were arrested in the UK in January 2019 under the extradition treaty agreed between the UK and the USA by Tony Blair's government which critics have always said allows for extradition on evidence that would not satisfy an English magistrate's court as a prima facie case. The arrest was on a provisional arrest warrant issued at the request of the USA, the DoJ said at the time. 

The scheme became known as "the tuna bond scandal" because the money was supposed to be used to fund the manufacture and operations of tuna fishing boats. 

Jean Boustani was acquitted, Pearse. Singh and Subeva entered into plea agreements. The cases against Allam, Chang, Nhangumele and do Rosario remain pending according to A&O Shearman's FCPA Digest for the case at https://fcpa.aoshearman.com/us-v-boustani-et-al.

However, aimnews.org reported on 8 August last year that Chang had been found guilty ( https://aimnews.org/2024/08/09/hidden-debts-new-york-jury-finds-chang-guilty/  ) 

Pearse and Singh both appeared as witnesses for the prosecution as part of their plea deal and therefore were not sentenced until the trials were over. They gave evidence in mid 2024. However, it seems that even now the two have not been sentenced. 

The Financial Conduct Authority, recognising that it is more than five years since the events, decided it was time to act and therefore decided to ban the pair from the UK financial services industry on the following basis: " is not a fit and proper person to perform any function in relation to any regulated activity. " The Order makes no mention of a period for which they are banned which appears to mean the bans are for life.

Credit Suisse paid a settlement with regulators in the USA and the UK, the UK portion of which was more than GBP145 million "for serious financial crime due diligence failings related to the loans which the bank arranged for the Republic of Mozambique."

https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/final-notices/andrew-james-pearse-2025.pdf

https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/final-notices/surjan-singh-2025.pdf

https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/final-notices/credit-suisse-2021.pdf