Francesco Marconati, a businesswoman from Marondera, has been convicted of fraud and forgery after unlawfully removing his business partner, Li Song, from the directorship of Eagle Italian Shoes (Pvt) Ltd.
Marconati appeared before Magistrate Donald Ndirowei, who found him guilty on two counts of fraud. According to Ndirowei’s ruling, Marconati improperly removed Li Song from her position as director and also removed Agrilink as the company secretary by falsifying documents that falsely indicated their resignation.
The State, represented by Anesu Chirenji, demonstrated that Marconati provided false information to the Company Registrar, claiming that Song had resigned when she had not.
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It was revealed that on October 14, 2021, Marconati submitted a fraudulent CR6 form to Ecobank and First Capital Bank, removing Li Song as a director and signatory of the company accounts and replacing her with his son, Alessandaro Marconati. This CR6 form was never filed with the Registrar.
Marconati failed to follow proper procedures, such as conducting a general or shareholders’ meeting, and did not inform Li Song of these changes. He later appointed his son Alessandro Marconati as a director in December 2022 through a second forged CR6 form.
Subsequently, Marconati and his son forged a third CR6 form in 2023 to appoint Kutaura Bond as an additional director. Due to these fraudulent activities, the company lost 6.8 million United States Dollars.
Magistrate Ndirowei noted that the company secretary was not informed of these changes, and no resignation letter from Song was submitted, nor were any meetings conducted to approve these actions.
Ndirowei concluded that the accused was guilty as charged. Marconati was released into the custody of his lawyer and was remanded until next Tuesday for a pre-sentencing inquiry.
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