TWO Econet Wireless Zimbabwe (EWZ) employees have been
arrested for allegedly fraudulently using agent lines belonging to cotton
company ETG Parrogate to conduct illegal foreign currency transactions.
Osmond Wachenuka (25) based in Nyanga and Nigel Domboka
(22) of Mutare appeared before the Chipinge Magistrate Court last Friday and
were remanded in custody to May 22.
A third suspect, Nyasha Nyatsungo, who is a former EWZ
employee, is reportedly on the run. It is the State’s case that on April 25
this year, Domboka, who is employed by Econet as an independent contract worker
in Nyanga, connived with Nyatsungo to reactivate ETG Parrogate’s merchant lines
(0785 042 957, 0776 942 363, 0785 042 957 and 0776 448 826), which had been
dormant from August last year to April 25 this year and were kept at the
company’s safe at Checheche Growth Point in Chipinge.
The co-accused, who reportedly had access to Econet’s
database, subsequently obtained the merchant codes and company profile
particulars and sent them to Wachenuka, who was responsible for data capture at
Econet Mutare.
He reactivated the lines after allegedly misrepresenting to
his employers that Parrogate wanted a SIM replacement and PIN reset.
“The accused (Wachenuka) then sold the merchant lines to
different people without Econet Wireless Zimbabwe’s knowledge or authority
since they were on high demand.
‘‘One of the merchant lines — number 0785 042 957, was sold
to Kudakwashe Mashangwa, who used it to transfer large volumes of money between
April 25 and April 30, 2020.
“On April 30, 2020, ETG Parrogate Zimbabwe received an
e-mail message from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe informing that it was
suspected to be involved in illicit foreign currency deals using one of its
merchant line numbers, resulting in the RBZ freezing all the company’s bank and
mobile money accounts,” the State alleges.
Subsequent investigations, which revealed that more than
$2,8 million was deposited in the company’s agent line in question and used for
questionable transactions, led to the duo’s arrest.
The alleged scam was discovered by the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) during its routine
monitoring of suspicious financial transactions.
The central bank last week closed an unspecified number of
mobile money agent line accounts suspected to have been fuelling black market
foreign currency activities, which are widely blamed for the volatile exchange
rate.
The suspensions affected a number of mobile money agent
lines accounts across all networks. The majority of financial transactions in
Zimbabwe are conducted on mobile platforms, with EcoCash accounting for about
95 percent of the volumes.
Preliminary investigations from the FIU show that
transactions valued at more than $75 million were being processed through agent
lines even though the nature of their businesses did not support such huge
amounts.
Claims that some of the agent lines were in overdraft have
also been equally worrying to investigators. Transactions on these lines were
reportedly disproportionately high despite the lockdown, which began on March
30. Sunday News
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