Con artists defraud Steward Bank of $22 million
By Vanessa Mhizha
Steward Bank lost Z$22 million after three con artists purported to be TM Supermarket senior employees and instructed the bank to transfer varying funds to various accounts.
Tonderai Salesio Chagweda, Tatenda Wellington Jombe and Moses January were arrested and arraigned before the Harare magistrate court facing charges of fraud.
Salesio, Chagweda and Jombe committed the offence while on bail for another matter that is before the courts.
The accused persons are said to have themselves as Raymond Matsetswa and Gamuchirai Nyamuzinga who are TM supermarkets Finance manager and Chief Finance Officer respectively.
The court heard that they sent an email to Steward Bank with instruction forms with forged signatures of the complainants instructing the bank to process and debit TM Supermarkets’ Steward Bank account to different transactions among them is one internal transaction and three other transactions amounting to Z$22 million.
It is the State’s case that on the 28th of January 2021 the accused persons unlawfully instructed Steward bank to process and debit its account by transferring funds into Simac Investments Pvt Limited Steward bank account number 11297078256, Z$3 million into Maloka Constructing Pvt Cabs account number 1129725936,Z$7 Million into Madzara investments Cabs account number 1129721914 and ZWL2Million into Maloka Constructing Pvt Limited Cabs account number 11290778256.
Steward Bank acted upon the misrepresentation and processed the transactions to its prejudiced whereas in truth and actual fact the accused persons were not employees of TM supermarkets.
