Controversial businessman Franscesco Marconani is spending the weekend behind bars after he was remanded to tomorrow for a bail hearing in a case where he is accused of stealing a gold mine.
Marconati was arrested on Friday after he handed himself to the police, ending days of a manhunt that saw him allegedly spending two days inside a mine shaft in Matabeleland Nortth’s Inyathi area to evade arrest.
He eventually went out of the mine using a weighbridge, bypassing the law enforcement agents camped at the gate waiting to apprehend him.
When he appeared at the Harare magistrates’ court, prosecutors opposed bail on the grounds that he had evaded arrest and that he had a record of violating bail conditions.
Marconati, who is on bail on a separate case of illegal possession of guns, had complained that the police who hunted him down were armed with guns and had no warrant of arrest.
The police said they were looking into the matter but the court asked him why he was raising an issue he had already reported to the police.
Through his lawyer, Marconati said he wanted to put the matter on record.
The businessman was arrested after Duration Gold Limited (DGL) 5 Mine alternate director Yan Bo for Ke Wang filed a report of fraud against him and Mark Andrew Hughes, an Australian who is said to have already skipped the country.
Hughes was allegedly given shares by Marconati after an illegal takeover of the gold mine.
The offence came to light on December 30 when Bo visited the Registrar of Companies where he discovered that Marconati and Hughes had re-registered the mine, appointing themselves as the only directors of the DGL mine.
“Such actions by Franscesco Marconati and Mark Andrew Hughes amounts to fraud,” part of Ibo’s affidavit read.
“This is so because at the time of re-registration, Francesco Marconati and Mark Andrew Hughes had failed to to enforce the court order that they had obtained under HCBC 9/25. This means that the directors of Investment number 5 were Xing Ming Chang , Li Song and Ke Wang.”
“Upon obtaining the court order under HCBC 9/25, the two tried to enforce it and failed as the Registrar of Companies or any other director or sheriff for Zimbabwe was supposed to sign the new CR6 to enable the two to be reinstated as directors.
“After having failed to execute the said order under HCBC 9/25, it meant that the remaining directors on the CR6 were Xing Ming Chang, Li Song and Ke Wang.”
Bo said Marconani and Hughes made a court application, HCBC 9/25 to amend the court order, but withdrew the application after it flopped.
He said that meant that the order for HCBC 9/25 could not be enforced and thus directorship of the mine remained unchanged.
“The two also filed HCBC 659/25 being an urgent application for execution pending appeal but the application was dismissed,” Bo said.
“This, therefore, meant that the directors remained as Xing Ming Chang, Li Song and Ke Wang.”
Bo said the duo changed the directors and “unlawfully removed legally appointed three directors” ignoring a pending court case dealing with the issue of shareholding of the company.
He said Marconati and Hughes had no lawful authority to elbow the DGL 5 directors out of the mine.
Marconani is currently on bail on charges of illegal possession of guns after one of his guards allegedly shot a local man.
He spent the festive season in remand prison and was only released early this month by the Supreme Court.