Court frees man accused of swindling a South African firm of $1 million

By The Standard | Jul. 17, 2017 | 2 Min read

A LOCAL man accused of swindling a South African oil company of fuel worth $976 608 was on Friday removed from remand by Harare magistrate, Nomsa Sabarauta after the State failed to come up with a trial date in the matter.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

Ronald Masimba Nyandoro (40), who was the Zimbabwe network and retail manager for South African-registered company, AfricaOil Limited, was freed after he contested his continued stay on remand.

Prosecutor, Sebastian Mutizirwa had opposed Nyandoro’s application for removal from remand, saying the State required more time to carry out extra-territorial investigations, but the magistrate dismissed the State’s averments.

According to the State, Nyandoro’s duty was to source for new clients and forward their applications electronically to South Africa for approval and listing. The State had alleged that sometime between August 2015 and July last year, Nyandoro defrauded AfricaOil by submitting credit application forms for 10 companies, which did not apply for the said facility, or had their applications rejected, for approval.

The fake applications would then be approved and the companies were given credit facilities without their knowledge. The State alleges during the period stretching from August 2015 to July last year, Nyandoro unlawfully created fictitious purchase orders purporting that the said companies had placed orders for varying amounts of fuel. The said orders would be approved by AfricaOil in South Africa and some release notes generated which were electronically forwarded to Nyandoro.

The State alleges that Nyandoro would intercept the fuel and sell it on the parallel market.

The offence came to light in April last year, when the company’s credit controller, discovered that some companies had accumulated huge debts for fuel supplied and were not making any efforts to clear the arrears. A follow-up showed the companies had neither purchased any fuel nor applied for credit. The credit controller also allegedly discovered that some of the companies were fictitious. AfricaOil reportedly suffered total prejudice of $976 608.