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Zinara bosses arrested for $300 000 fraud

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TWO Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) finance executives appeared in court yesterday facing allegations of defrauding their employer of $300 000 in a shady loan repayment deal.

TWO Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) finance executives appeared in court yesterday facing allegations of defrauding their employer of $300 000 in a shady loan repayment deal.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

Simon Mudzingwa Taranhike (53) and Shadreck Matengabadza (44), who are employed as finance director and finance manager, respectively, were not asked to plead when they appeared before Harare provincial magistrate, Nomsa Sabarauta, who granted them $500 bail each and remanded them to August 8.

Allegations are that sometime in 2011, Zinara was advanced a 10-year loan facility of $206 million by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) for the construction and rehabilitation of the 823km-long Plumtree-Mutare Highway.

The loan was released through Infralink (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary company jointly owned by Zinara and Group Five (Pvt) Ltd, which was formed specifically as a special purpose vehicle to manage the fund.

Further, NMB Bank was nominated by DBSA to facilitate the loan repayment on a quarterly basis and all revenue in hard currency realised from Zinara’s operation was channelled to NMB Bank for onwards remittance to DBSA.

The State alleges due to foreign currency challenges, remittances to NMB Bank were being made in bond notes, leaving the bank with the task of sourcing hard currency on behalf of DBSA.

It is the State’s case that on May 23 this year, Taranhike and Matengabadza, acting in connivance with Grayriver (Pvt) Ltd directors, Munyaradzi Paraiwa and Magaisa Sobuzobani, made a $300 000 transfer to Grayriver on the pretext that the payment was a reimbursement to its South Africa-based sister company, Solarwatts.

Solarwatts is alleged to have paid $250 000 to DBSA on behalf of Zinara’s part payment of loan obligation with DBSA.

The State alleges on May 24 this year, Grayriver, through its directors, made a $40 500 bank transfer to Albert Fungai Muzambi, $17 046 to Honest Kugotsi, $61 500 to Willo Mackenzie and $12 500 to Chadler Moyo.

It is alleged on the same date, the CBZ Bank security department received an anonymous call to the effect that Grayriver was a fraudulent company used to siphon money from Zinara and the information was passed to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), which then made a report to the police.

Investigations revealed that one of the beneficiaries’ bank statements was also Matengabadza’s wife, Chemusaiziva, who received $2 500 from the $300 000 paid to Grayriver. It was also established that Sobuzobani was a signatory to the company’s bank account, which was opened in January this year contrary to records kept at the Registrar-General’s Office, which revealed that he died in September last year.

Linda Gadzikwa appeared for the State.