Loan shark, Inverness Investment, conned US$500,000
South African businessman Brent Greylish spent the weekend behind bars after he was arrested following allegations that he attempted to dupe a local company of US$500,000 in a loan deal that went sour.
Inverness Investment, which apparently loans out thousands of dollars to locals and people in foreign countries, is said to have entered into an agreement with Greylish but the South African businessman failed to honour the agreement.
The company is said to have tabled a a bigger loan proposal which caused the South African to fly into Zimbabwe leading to his arrest.
It is not clear how Inverness Investment, which offers loans at extremely high interest rate, is authorised to lend money through its current modus operandi.
Greylish appeared before a Harare Magistrate on Friday where it is the State’s case that on May 21 last year he entered into an agreement with Inverness investment for a loan amounting to US$200,000 in which he would pay US$12, 000 thousand per month.
The court heard that the agreement was to run for three months and after the three months period the accused would return the initial amount of US$200.000.
Upon the lapse of the three months the South African businessman returned the initial amount he had borrowed.
On July 3 last year the local company and the accused person entered into another loan agreement for a sum of US$500,000 thousand.
Greylish under a company called Milean would pay US$75,000 monthly for a period of six months.
The accused sent a representative Bernard Munashe Papalika to collect the money on his behalf and the representative used the facility of Joachim Chivayo who transferred the money to Greylish through South African FNB Account number and the accused acknowledged the receipt of the money.
The agreement ran for about three months in which the accused managed to pay three months interest before terminating the agreement and was supposed to pay back the initial amount given to him but he did not pay back.
After several months of convincing him to pay back the loan, the complainant then decided to lure Greyling to Zimbabwe by offering him another US$1, 2 million loan.
He then flew into Zimbabwe to get the loan but was immediately arrested upon arrival.
Greyling prejudiced the complainant of US$500 000. Nothing was recovered.
