A 30-YEAR-OLD Harare man, who allegedly swindled a local hardware company, Fortune Investments, of $290 000 after promising to organise a lucrative contract at the American embassy, appeared in court last Friday on a fraud charge.
BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE
Gracious Mukucha was not asked to plead and was remanded in custody to February 10 by Harare magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa after his lawyer failed to pitch up for the bail application.
Mukucha was arrested last Wednesday at Harare International Airport, while returning from Hong Kong.
His arrest brings the number of suspects in connection with the matter to four, after Nyasha Matongorere, Macmillan Chidziva and Fortune Magama were picked up over the same issue.
The trio has already been brought to court and placed on remand.
The complainant, Fortune Investments, claims that sometime in August last year, Mukucha connived with Matongorere and Chidziva and misrepresented that he was a buyer at BL-Harbert InternationaI.
Mukucha allegedly told the complainant that there were some companies, that had been offered contracts by BL-Harbert International, but had no money to fund their contracts, hence, they wanted the complainant to fund the purported companies.
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The complainant allegedly accepted the offer and transferred $289 980 to Mukucha for the funding of the purported companies, which were financially incapacitated.
The court heard Mukucha withdrew the money and shared the loot with his accomplices.
The matter came to light when the complainant did not receive the proceeds as promised and reported the matter to the police.
Michael Reza appeared for the State.
