Businessman faces fresh charges
A BULAWAYO businessman who is already on trial for fraud charges and under investigation for swindling a number of people has been dragged before a Harare magistrate for fraud as defined in section 136 (1) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Chapter 9:23).
He was arrested in Bulawayo on Monday and taken to Harare for trial. Ismail Moosa Lunat was not asked to plead when he appeared before Harare Provincial magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa on Wednesday.
The court appearance was a culmination of events that began in October 2018 when the complainant Adam Houghton, a 36-year-old man, contacted his friend Steve Hahn, seeking assistance to convert RTGS money, which was in his bank account, into cash.
Hahn, who said could not help as he was out of the country, referred Houghton to Lunat. Lunat allegedly convinced Houghton to transfer US$290 400 into a CABS Bank account number 1006092641 in the name Stanzim Investments. Houghton transferred the money on 28 October.
Stanzim Investments allegedly belongs to the second accused Miraculous Zhou, a friend of Lunat. Zhou, working with Lunat, allegedly moved the money within 24 hours into various accounts but did not give Houghton his money.
Houghton then contacted Lunat on numerous occasions asking for his cash, but Lunat could not fork out the cash. After realising that Lunat was failing to pay him back his money, Houghton reported the matter to the police leading to the arrest of both Lunat and Zhou.
In an effort to have the charges of theft of trust of property withdrawn, on 3 February 2019, Lunat allegedly tendered in an original tittle deed of a property in Bulawayo in the name of Benjamin Ndachengedzwa and Caroline Ndachengedzwa through Hahn to Houghton as surety that he would pay back the money.
The court heard that Lunat had initially promised to reimburse the complainant’s money on or before 14 January, through a signed affidavit. When that failed he offered tittle deeds as surety, but when Houghton made inquiries about the title deeds, he discovered that Lunat had no control over the deeds.
Police investigations led by Detective Constable Webster Chipatiso from Criminal Investigation Department Property Harare, discovered that the owner of the title deeds Caroline Ndachengedzwa had reported them lost to the Deeds Office in Bulawayo and had already applied for replacement and change of name since her husband Benjamin Ndachengedzwa had passed on.
Lunat was released on $3 000 bail and was ordered to report three times a week at Bulawayo Central Police Station. He was also ordered to surrender his passport and to reside at his residence until the finalisation of the case.
The Clerk of Court was ordered to confirm that Lunat had already surrendered his passport as part of bail conditions relating to similar cases of fraud charges that are before the courts.