Extra territorial investigations for Matemera’s case
By Tarisai Machakaire |Daily News|
Investigating officers handling an externalisation case involving BancABC managing director Hashmon Matemera are set to travel to Sierra Leone and Tanzania as the probe on how $300 000 000 was taken out of the country rages on.
This was said by prosecutor Sabastian Mutizirwa when Matemera appeared before Harare magistrate Bianca Makwande on Thursday.
Matemera, 52, is facing allegations of contravening the Exchange and Control Act, particularly externalisation.
Mutizirwa addressed the court: “Your worship, investigations in this case are still ongoing … The investigating team is set to travel to Sierra Leone and Tanzania hence we seek a longer postponement of the case to December 8.”
Makwande granted the postponement. Matemera is currently out on bail. According to the State on November 23, Jinan Mining (Pvt) Ltd was formed through a joint venture agreement between Marange Resources (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary company of Zimbabwe Mining Development Company (ZMDC, and Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company (AFECC) on equal share-holding.
Marange Resources was supposed to provide diamond mineral claims to the joint venture while AFECC funded mining operations.
The court heard that on January 9, 2012 Jinan Minning opened a BancABC transitory account at Mt Pleasant branch before $628 792 555, 02 was deposited from AFECC as investment funds.
Matemera reportedly facilitated opening of the said account and connived with Bai Xiangqian, Qingde Jiang, Bei Bei Ma who are still at large and transferred $332 980 000 from the account into a BancABC Botswana account for purported investment in that country.
The court heard that extra territorial investigations were instituted and established that the $332 980 000 was transferred to Botswana and was never used.
It was further established that varied amounts of the money were moved to a number of countries.
Further evidence revealed that Jinan Minning is not registered in Botswana and has no operations in that country. The Botswana bank account was opened using Zimbabwean company documents and transfers were administered from BancABC Mt Pleasant Branch.The total amount externalised was $332 980 000 and $11 727 272 was transferred back into the country.
