A 30-year-old Harare banker employed by First Capital Bank under the NGO Branch as a cashier has been granted $10 000 bail after he had been dragged before court on theft and fraud charges after milking his employer of hundreds of thousands of foreign currency in hard cash.
Bangiso Tafirei of Tynwald reportedly approached account holders with his bank to transfer various amounts through ZIPIT into their bank accounts before he would manipulate the banking system and misrepresent that the money received was foreign currency and later withdraw it as hard USD cash.
He appeared before Harare Magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa who granted him bail in the sum of $10 000 coupled with stringent conditions.
Tafirei is represented by Jonathan Samukange and was remanded to February 25.
Allegations are that Tafirei was employed by First Capital Bank NGO Branch as a cashier. The NGO branch is a specially instituted cash out point for non-governmental organisations which pays their employees for goods and services in foreign currency mainly in United State’s Dollars.
From the period extending from August 1, 2018 to December 31, Tafirei hatched plan to defraud his employer and he approached various bank account holders who would transfer various amounts through ZIPIT into First Capital Bank accounts. Once the money would be in the accounts, he would misrepresent that the accounts were foreign currency accounts entitled to withdraw hard cash in USD currency.
From the period when he put his plans in motion, the 30-year-old Tafirei cash amounting to USD $455 680.00. The offense came to light after the bank did a reconciliation which showed that the amount deposited was being surpassed by amounts withdrawn from the bank which prompted internal investigations.