Billy Thomas
Syedou who is the second accused person was issued with an ‘administrative’
warrant of arrest after his lawyers told the presiding magistrate that he had
defaulted court because he had suffered a stroke.
The matter was
provisionally set down for November 17 and on that date, his lawyers are
expected to appraise the court on his progress.
Syedou is being
charged together with Zhao Jiaotong and the State believes the two are the masterminds of the
Ponzi scheme. It is alleged that Jiaotong and Syedou registered their company
styled E-Creator Economic Commerce Private Limited in January this year. The company was housed at Joina City in the
Harare CBD. They went on to launch the company as an online e-commerce
operator.
They went on to
misrepresent to their investors that they would enjoy monthly returns depending
on the mounts invested and thousands of Zimbabweans flocked to join investing
up to US$1000 through Ecocash on the numbers they provided.
On top of
appointing brand ambassadors Madam Boss and Mama Vee, they also employed
various agents in major towns and cities throughout the country in order to
market the business.
On July 3, some
of the subscribers encountered challenges in accessing their funds and
approached the company for clarifications. They allegedly assured the
subscribers that it was a system upgrade that was affecting access to their
funds and further advised them that the situation would normalize in due
course. On July 5, 2024, subscribers were shocked to realise that E-Creator
Electronic Commerce [Private Limited had actually sent a notice on their
website that they are no-longer operating, and they posted a picture of Zhao Jiaotong as the one who taken their
money and absconded to China.
They went to
the offices and discovered that they had been closed permanently.
Loveit Muringwa
prosecuted. H Metro
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