Former Mozambique finance minister is extradited to the US to face trial over $2 billion scandal

abcnews.go.com:

Former Mozambique finance minister Manuel Chang has been extradited to the U.S. to face a fraud and corruption trial over a $2 billion scandal involving fraudulent government loans

JOHANNESBURG — A former Mozambique finance minister who has been held in prison in South Africa for nearly five years was extradited Wednesday to the United States to face a fraud and corruption trial over a $2 billion scandal involving fraudulent government loans.

South African authorities said that Manuel Chang, who was Mozambique's finance minister from 2005 to 2015, was handed over to U.S. authorities after his last-ditch court effort to avoid extradition failed in May.

Chang is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.

Chang’s attorney, Adam Ford, said his client is “relieved to have finally gotten to America where he can confront the baseless charges against him.”

«He looks forward to his day in court and expects to be fully vindicated,” Ford said in an email.

It brings to an end a nearly five-year legal battle by Chang to avoid facing trial in the U.S. and be extradited instead to his home country, where rights groups have protested that he would likely be treated leniently.

He is accused of receiving bribes of up to $17 million during a scheme that secured loans for Mozambican state-owned companies from foreign banks and financiers for maritime projects. The money was looted through kickbacks and other corrupt dealings, according to U.S. prosecutors.

Chang was indicted in federal court in New York over his involvement in the scheme, which U.S. authorities allege defrauded American and international investors. He has not commented on the charges against him.

The loans totaling $2 billion were intended for