Tetrad depositors threaten to sue, fight for audit

HARARE – Disgruntled Tetrad Investment Bank (TIB) depositors have formed a trust probing the struggling institution for a forensic audit, it has emerged.

The trust, which seeks to understand the reasons behind delays in securing an investor for the bank, wants a forensic audit into the activities of the bank, its associates as well as officials, with the facilitation of cash release as another main objective the trust has tasked itself with.

“The objectives of the trust is: a) to recover the maximum value of their investment in the shortest possible time following due processes, b) to secure the immediate appointment of a forensic audit on the affairs of TIB, its allied companies and officials,” the trust said in a statement.

The trust also said it was going to sue in the event that TIB failed to deliver of the requested information.

“Understanding that creditors are diverse in their origin, but sharing a common interest in the recovery of their money invested in at TIB, the informal group decide to create a unified group and form a Trust, the TCG Trust, to represent all creditors,” the trust said.

In March, creditors gave a potential Russian investor one month to inject fresh capital into the troubled bank threatening they were going to vote for liquidation, if the investor failed to come through.

Last year at a scheme meeting, creditors voted to protect the bank’s assets pending finalisation of a reported $200 million rescue deal by Horizon Capital Consortium made up of a Russian investor Sergey Pokusaev, the government and other local investors.

However, the deal has not yielded results.

At the March creditors’ meeting, Tetrad judicial manager, Winsley Militala, said the Russian investor was yet to give a solid commitment to saving the bank, adding the institution had to be liquidated.

The ailing bank — part of the Tetrad Holdings Limited group, which comprises an asset management company and a micro-lending unit — had a negative capital of nearly $20 million as at December 31, 2014.

Tetrad owes $22 million to secured creditors and an additional $41 million to unsecured creditors.

As at May 31, TIB liabilities exceeded assets by almost $30 million, as the cash position was around $500 000.

In November last year, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) suspended Tetrad from taking deposits and issuing loans until completion of its recapitalisation exercise. Daily News