A SOUTH AFRICAN investor, Imran Valley, lost his company
and assets worth $650 000 after his Zimbabwean manager allegedly fraudulently
filed fake documents to the Registrar of Companies before changing ownership.
Azeem Hassim (34) was summoned to court and appeared before
magistrate Noel Mupeiwa charged with fraud.
It is the State’s case that in May 2012, Valley bought a
company known as Pickday Investments through Anis Abdul Karim Omar, a chartered
accountant, to venture into grocery distribution business in Zimbabwe.
The company was incorporated on June 14, 2012, with Valley
and Hassim being the directors. Valley allegedly appointed Hassim a
non-shareholder director at the recommendations of his business partner
Aboobaker Bhadella.
Valley then entrusted Hassim to command day-to-day
operations of the company.
It is alleged during the course of operations, Valley
acquired properties which include vehicles and machines among others, which
were left in the custody of Hassim for the smooth running of the company.
The State alleges during his tenure of office, Hassim
unlawfully sold some of the properties without the knowledge and authority of
Valley.
A dispute ensued resulting in Hassim tendering his
resignation, which was formally accepted by Valley on July 20 last year.
It is alleged Valley paid Hassim his benefits and dues and
then appointed Tutai Mbizvo as a replacement director.
Mbizvo then engaged Abdul Omar, the company accountant, to
process a new CR14 and send them to Registrar of Companies for filing.
The State alleges after Hassim resigned, he connived with
his brother Firoz, who is at large, and approached Makevale Consult
(Private)Ltd represented by Gamuchirayi Chevazhinji.
He allegedly misrepresented to her that Pickday Investments
was a shelf company which he purchased long back and had not been operational,
hence he needed to start operations with new directors.
As a result, Chevazhinji visited the Registrar of Companies
to ascertain from the file if Hassim was telling the truth, but she failed to
locate the file.
She caused the signing of the share transfers, change of
directors and also prepared the annual returns that indicated that the company
was not operational.
Armed with the new CR14, Hassim and Chevazhinji wrote a
letter to Stanbic Bank, where the company has a bank account, directing them to
change the signatories to the bank account, which the financial institution
turned down, citing that records showed Valley was the shareholder of the
company.
Hassim allegedly went further and used the concocted
documents at Masvingo Magistrates’ Court in a civil litigation claiming
ownership of the company and, as a result, an order was granted in his favour.
The accused allegedly took all the machinery, stock and
trucks belonging to Valley to an unknown destination.
The court heard Valley suffered actual prejudice of $650
000 and nothing was recovered.
Constance Ngombengombe prosecuted for the State. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment