The U.S. Department of Justice’s efforts to prove that a Lebanese business executive conspired to defraud European banks took another hit November 4 when prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York brought in a second appraiser who testified that the tuna boats that were purchased by Mozambique were, in fact, delivered and operable, undercutting prosecutors’ assertion that the contracts were “shams.”
Anthony English, a boat valuation expert hired by one of the European banks, Credit Suisse, said that the tuna boats that the executive, Jean Boustani, and his employer, Privinvest, contracted to deliver to Mozambique were in fact delivered and were operable. Prosecutors had asserted that the contracts were “shams” and were designed to provide kickbacks to a variety of officials.
English also testified that he concluded that the boats, which were one part of the overall equipment and systems sold to Mozambique, were worth hundreds of millions of dollars, an amount in the range of what was paid for them.
He acknowledged that placing a definitive price on the boat deliveries was difficult because the tuna boat market as a whole is “very and highly unusual” and that he wasn’t an expert – and couldn’t put a value on — the additional services that accompanied these specific boats. In responding to Boustani’s counsel, English stated valuing boats “isn’t rocket science” and it is reasonable that two people valuing the same boat could reach different results, which occurred in a previous valuation English prepared for a separate trial that was deemed too low by the judge in that trial.
English was the second appraiser who was put on the stand during the trial of United States v. Jean Boustani. Last week, Michael Formosa created a stir by not even recognizing a picture of the delivered ship that he was supposed to have valued. Laughter filled the Brooklyn courtroom when Formosa admitted he was only guessing about the identity of the boat.
The U.S. is trying to establish that the sale of ships built by a world-class shipyard in France were part of a “sham” contract that was little more than a vehicle for kickbacks and bribes. The inconvenient truth that keeps emerging in the trial is that Mozambique did buy a fleet of state-of-the art ships from the firm Privinvest, for which Mr. Boustani worked. According to Credit Suisse’s own due diligence, all assets were delivered by 2016 in accordance with the contracts.
The second appraiser’s testimony that the boats were seaworthy and available in Mozambique put another major hole in the prosecutors’ case.
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