Former Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono defrauded by estate agent

Former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr Gideon Gono lost his property Valley Lodge to an estate agent and his wife after they allegedly changed ownership fraudulently.

The accused Clark Makoni and Beverly Aisha Makoni appeared at the Harare Magistrates Court before Dennis Mangosi who granted them US$300 each.

The complainant is Galwex Investments (Pvt) Ltd represented by George Mashonganyika.

Galwex Investments (Pvt) Ltd is a private company registered under company number 2301 91 and is the holding company owning all shares in both Lizack Holdings (Pvt) Ltd and Valley Lodge (Pvt) Ltd.

lt is alleged that on October 30, 2009, Costick Investments (Pvt) Ltd sold all its shares in Lizack and Valley Lodge to Galwex Investments (Pvt) Ltd.

Sometime in 2017, the complainant assigned Ark Properties, a company wholly owned by the Makoni’s to manage Valley Lodge (Pvt) Ltd, a property situated at stand number 4006 Beira Road, Mutare in their capacity as the Estate Agents.

In August 2017, the accused persons hatched a plan to defraud the complainant by fraudulently changing the directorship of Valley Lodge (Private) Ltd without the knowledge and consent of the complainant.

lt is alleged that on August 10, 2017, Makoni filed a fraudulent CR.14 form to the Registrar of Companies in which he imposed himself and his wife Beverly Aisha Makoni as the sole directors of Valley Lodge (Private) Ltd without the knowledge of the complainant.

Investigations established that, the accused persons went to ZB Bank Holdings with fraudulent CR14 forms and imposed themselves as the signatories of Valley Lodge (private) Ltd account number 4532443180200.

Thereafter, the accused persons made several withdrawals of funds received in the account and converted the money to their personal use.

Since 2017 when they fraudulently took over the company the accused have been declaring that the company was making losses leading to Galwex Investments instituting an internal audit to look into the performance of Valley Lodge and other subsidiary companies.

It was during the internal audit process that it was established that Valley Lodge had been fraudulently taken over by the accused persons.

The state alleges that the quantum of prejudice is yet to be determined as the accused persons have been refusing to provide records, but it’s more than US$300 000 prejudice caused.