Controversial businessman Francesco Marconati will spend two more weeks in remand prison after his bail application in a case where he is accused of fraud was postponed to February 16.
Marconati first appeared in court last Saturday charged with fraud after he allegedly booted out shareholders of Duration Gold Limited (DGL) 5 Mine in Matabeleland North’s Inyathi area.
His alleged accomplice Andrew Hughes, an Australian, had already skipped the country when the Marondera-based businessman handed over himself to the police last Friday.
Harare magistrate Jessie Kufa on Monday postponed Marconati’s bail hearing to February 16.
Pro Lancelot Mutsokoti told the court that the defence was free to apply for bail at any time following the case’s postponement.
Marconati’s lawyer Lewis Uriri had asked to submit the bail application in writing.
The businessman allegedly spent two days hiding in a mine shaft in Inyathi before orchestrating a movie-style escape through the weighbridge.
He was driven out of the mine aboard a Honda Fit vehicle and evaded police officers, who were waiting to arrest him at the gate.
Prior to the dramatic escape, police had been hunting for Marconati for 10 days.
Marconati eventually handed himself in after running out of options because he was supposed to report to Inyathi police as part of his bail conditions following his arrest in December last year.
His latest brush with the law followed a report by DGL 5 alternate directors Yan Bo and Ke Wang.
Yan accused Marconati and Mark Andrew Hughes, an Australian, who was illegally given shares by the Marondera-based businessman after an illegal takeover of the gold mine.
The offence came to light on December 30 when Yan visited the Registrar of Companies where he discovered that Marconati and Hughes had re-registered the mine, appointing themselves as the only directors of DGL mine.
“Such actions by Franscesco Marconati and Mark Andrew Hughes amount to fraud,” part of Yan’s affidavit read.
“This is so because at the time of re-registration, Francesco Marconati and Mark Andrew Hughes had failed 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.”
According to Yan, Marconani and Hughes made a court application, HCBC 9/25 to amend the court order, but withdrew the application after it flopped.
This, according toYan, means 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,” he said.
“This, therefore, meant that the directors remained as Xing Ming Chang, Li Song and Ke Wang.”
Yan 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 directors of DGL 5.
The businessman’s illegal gun possession case followed the fatal shooting of a local man by one of his guards.
Villagers from Inyathi have also been trying to protest against Marconati over the shooting, but they were twice blocked by the police, whom they accused of protecting him.