Why is America involved in the Mozambique “tuna scandal”?
If you do business globally as a multinational company, employee or consultant, you might wish to follow the convoluted U.S. legal case against Lebanese ship salesman Jean Boustani.
Boustani was the chief sales executive of a global shipbuilding company, Privinvest, based in the Middle East with operating shipyards in France, Germany and elsewhere. Privinvest has built vessels and systems for about 40 navies to protect their waters.
In 2012, when the Mozambique government launched a series of maritime projects to build a tuna fishing fleet, shipyard facilities and a coastal navy to protect its waters, Boustani helped Privinvest win the contracts.
But after Privinvest delivered the vessels and systems, Mozambique abandoned the projects, defaulted on $2 billion in debt financing and was accu...