A Harare lawyer yesterday appeared in court for allegedly misappropriating trust funds amounting to US$200 000.
Ryan Baglow (35) of Matizanadzo and Warhurts Legal
Practitioners allegedly used two names to hoodwink his clients, the court
heard. Baglow allegedly failed to account for US$200 000, he collected on
behalf of his client on a sale of two stands.
Baglow was not asked to plead when he appeared before
Harare magistrate Ms Judith Taruvinga who released him on $50 000 bail.
The complainant in the matter is Lake Fisheries, a duly
registered company in Kariba, represented by one of its directors, Mr David
Edwin Webster.
Prosecutor Mr Sebastian Mutizirwa alleged that in 2007,
Webster and his co-director, the late Mr Thomas Campbell Miller, formed a
company named Stenplay Investments, which purchased the entire issued share
capital in companies called Lake Fresh Fishers Kariba Sardines and Sea Farmers
from Peter Oscar Marchussen.
According to the State, Lake Fresh Fisheries had properties
which were stand numbers, 473-566 Kariba Township, but due to financial
inability, the two directors decided to dispose of them.
It is alleged they wanted to raise money to fund Lake Fresh
Fisheries and its associated company’s capital and operational needs.
Mr Miller then expressed interest in purchasing the two
stands for his company called Fairwinds Farming (Pvt) Limited and he approached
his legal practitioner, Baglow for legal advice whom he knew as Ryan Stewart.
It is the State’s case that Baglow fraudulently appointed
“another” lawyer called Ryan Baglow to represent Lake Fresh Fisheries in the
sale of its two stands when in actual fact it was him using the two names.
Acting on the misrepresentation, Mr Webster signed a
resolution authorising Baglow to sell the two stands on their behalf and he
subsequently sold the them to Mr Miller at an agreed price of US$200 000.
He further instructed Miller to deposit US$40 000 to
Matizanadzo and Warhurst Law Firm’s trust account and US$160 000 into Lake
Fresh Fisheries account.
An agreement of sale of the two stands was drafted between
Lake Fresh Fisheries and Fairwinds Farming where Baglow represented the seller,
but according to the State, Baglow failed to account for the proceeds of the stands.
Baglow, it is alleged, later facilitated the transfer of
the stands from Lake Fresh Fisheries name into Fairwinds name.
Mr Miller later passed on leaving Mr Webster as the only
director of Stenplay, who later realised that he had been duped by Baglow and
made a police report.
Investigations established that Baglow was using both names
Ryan Baglow and Ryan Stewart, with the later having no record at the office of
the Registrar General. Herald
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