The fallout from Mozambique’s debt scandal reaches a London court

It was theVTBUBS, biggest corruption scandal in Mozambique’s history, involving more than $2bn of borrowing by three state-backed firms, mostly done in secret, and greased by kickbacks. On October 16th, a decade after the first loan was agreed, the reverberations will reach the High Court in London. There the government of Mozambique is seeking more than $2bn in damages from Privinvest, a group of firms based in Lebanon, and its boss.Mozambique, however, seems to have mixed feelings about its case being heard. On October 1st it reached a last-minute settlement with Credit Suisse, the bank that helped arrange two of the deals. The terms are not public, but a person with knowledge of the matter says the bank forgave $440m in debt, although it had already agreed to cancel much of that in a deal with British regulators in 2021. The government will pay less than $50m to other external creditors. It has not yet settled with , a Russian bank that was also involved in the original transactions. which completed a takeover of Credit Suisse in June,and Mozambique declined to comment on the sum.