MoneyGram sucked into CFX Bank dispute

By Gilbert Muponda

It appears that MoneyGram International is leading international corporate irresponsibility that has gone unpunished for too long in African countries. Huge American and international firms are deliberately doing business with individuals who have looted and grabbed assets.

By continuing to partner Interfin Banking Corporation despite knowing the disputed ownership of the Bank ,Moneygram is only confirming its blatant disregard of internationally accepted corporate responsibility expectations.

MoneyGram International officers should have been far more alert to the perception that they might benefit from exploitation of their brand and reputation by doing business with Interfin Banking Corporation which includes an illegally incorporated entity CFX Bank.

In my effort to recover my Bank illegally seized from me when at least 309 000 000 (million) and up to 900,000,000 (Nine hundred Million), Century Bank shares fraudulently converted into CFX Bank shares. The fraud was masked as a merger between Century Bank and CFX Bank but after the merger Century name was dropped to cover the tracks of the fraud.

The dispute was triggered by the special bargain sale of 309,000,000 shares on 12 May 2004 but the total shares owned by me and my Company were 900,000,000 the balance was transferred in peace meal fashion to avoid detection of the fraud and transaction laundering that was being perpetrated.

Various transactions and Company re-organization schemes with the ultimate aim of sanitizing asset looting and illegal expropriation of my Bank Century/CFX have been going on with the latest being re-naming the Bank Interfin Banking Corporation.

Integrity capacity is the individual and collective capability for the repeated process alignment of moral awareness, deliberation, character, and conduct that demonstrates balanced judgment, enhances ongoing moral development, and promotes supportive systems for moral decision making (Petrick and Quinn 2000).

It is one key intangible asset that acts as a catalyst for reputational capital and its erosion can jeopardize the survival and credibility of organizations and markets. Corporate managers are expected to maximize investor returns while complying with regulatory standards, avoiding principal-agent conflicts of interest, and enhancing the reputational capital of their firms.

In this case MoneyGram International Management seem to be taking a casual approach to a very serious matter. This may have serious repurcussions on the 70 year old firm’s reputation especially in Africa where an elite class is seizing assets then going into partnership with Money Gram to gain international acceptability and good reputation by association.

Ethical literacy is all about recognizing potential ethical issues before they become legal problems, this is why MoneyGram International need to trade carefully when dealing with a disputed asset such as CFX/Interfin Banking Corporation Zimbabwe.

The increasing level of managerial negligence and corporate irresponsibility as shown by both MoneyGram International Management and Interfin Banking Corporation has eroded domestic and global trust in Zimbabwe’s Financial system. If Chairman of Interfin Bank and Kingdom Meikles Africa Limited can publicly and falsely claim he paid someone US$ 5.3 million one wonders what else is being deliberately mis-stated to create a false impression to the investing public ,international partners, shareholders and regulatory Authorities.

The neglect of managerial integrity capacity is at the moral root of Enron’s legal and financial problems. What is legally permissible today, but morally questionable, may well become legally proscribed tomorrow. Thus, it is important for managers to proactively understand and attend to the multiple dimensions and moral antecedents of illegal activity.

Managers can attempt to evade full moral accountability by compartmentalizing and fragmenting their handling of management and ethics issues This is both immoral and unacceptable.MoneyGram International,Farai Rwodzi and Interfin Bank’s actions are shocking and shows complete disregard for fundamental fairness.

The CFX/Interfin Bank Zimbabwe scandal involves both illegal and unethical activity and the courts of law will determine the precise extent of civil and criminal liability that accrues to the perpetrators.MoneyGram International need to keep this in mind.

The senior executives at Interfin Bank led by Interfin and Kingdom Meikles Africa Limited Chairman Farai Rwodzi believe had to be the best at everything it did and that they had to protect their reputations and their compensation as the most successful executives in the Zimbabwe market even using dubious and unethical means.

When some of their business acquistions are not legally done and trading ventures began to perform poorly, they tried to cover up their own failures by issuing false and misleading news articles such as the one by Farai Rwodzi on 25 August 2010 in Newsday newspaper claiming Interfin Bank had paid Gilbert Muponda US $ 5.3 million for the CFX Bank equity stake. ( http://www.newsday.co.zw/article/2010-08-25-interfin-acquires-13-of-starafrica ) .

The Interfin and Kingdom Meikles Africa Chairman told Newsday Newspaper “The company last month paid Gilbert Muponda $5,3 million for equity allegedly transferred to the acquirer irregularly during the merger” .This is incorrect this money has not yet been paid to settle the CFX/Interfin Bank ownership dispute.

Interfin Bank Senior Management led by Farai Rwodzi appeared to be erroneously and overly confident of their initial distorted perceptions of morally acceptable business conduct, and when challenged, as regarding the appropriateness of his financial structure of reversing taking over a disputed CFX Bank, retaliated against accusers and sought to mislead the investing public,regulatory authorities and International firms such as MoneyGram International who have failed to carry out proper due diligence to verify claims by Farai Rwodzi that Interfin Bank has settled the ownership dispute by paying me US $ 5.3million.

When a senior executive like Farai Rwodzi Chairman of Kingdom Meikles Africa resort to making false claims his partners such as MoneyGram International, Kingdom Meikles Africa and fellow Interfin Directors should be alert and know the lack of intergrity exhibited by such claims.

Moral conduct, an important component of process integrity, is the individual and collective carrying out of justifiable actions on a sustained basis. Managers that exhibit ethical conduct develop a reputation for dependability and alignment of moral rhetoric and reality over time and make public statements based on fact and verifiable information.

This article appears courtesy of GMRI CAPITAL – www.gmricapital.com. It is original content generated for 3MG MEDIA.

Gilbert Muponda is an Investment Banker and Founder of GMRI CAPITAL. He can be reached at; www.ZimFace.com  and www.facebook.com/muponda

Email: [email protected] Skype ID: gilbert.Muponda

Twitter : http://twitter.com/gmricapital