Zacc officer exposed fraudsters who conned ex-RBZ governor

Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission investigating officer Eric Chacha who is the investigating officer into the case of a Harare couple who are accused of fraud after they allegedly took ownership of former RBZ governor Gideon Gono’s property submitted through state fraudulent documents used by the accused persons during the commission of the offence.

A fraudulent CR14 used by suspected fraudsters Clarks and Beverly Makoni the change the ownership of Valley lodge owned by Gono and the one used by the duo to open a bank account with ZB Bank was submitted in court as exhibits.

Chacha told magistrate Stanford Mambanje that after Gono reported the offence he started investigations by proceeding to Registrar of companies where he was showed a CR14 which showed Ayoob and Mohamed Omar were the director of a company that owned Valley Lodge.

Chacha said while investigating the matter he was shown an agreement of sale between the Omar and Dr Gono.

He said the company owned by Omar sold whole shares in Valley Lodge to Dr Gono.

“I went on to request ZB Bank to provide current bank statements, directorship of the Valley Lodge that was submitted to the bank after the changes.

“The requested documents revealed that their company Ark Property is an Estate agents,” Chacha told court.

Chacha said they went to Mutare ZRP on investigations and they found out that the accused persons had submitted a spoliation order to the police which we verified and it revealed that the accused persons were owners of Valley Lodge which was not true.

Chacha said when they took the fake CR14 to Registrar of companies offices they dismissed it as fake.

“Through these fake CR14 the accused person managed to change the ownership of Valley lodge.

“We discovered that during that time the accused corruptly and fraudulently changed the CR14 without the authority of the complainant.

“They removed Ayooba Omar from the CR14 without the consent of either Omar or Gono

“From the document that we applied from ZB Bank we observed that on October 2023 the accused again fraudulently changed the signatories to Valley Lodge account without the knowledge of the complainant.

“At the bank they presented the forged CR14 in which the bank believed that they were the directors of Value lodge properties,” Chacha told court.

Chacha told court that the accused persons even submitted an affidavit at the High Court while seeking a spoliation order stating they are the real owners of Valley Lodge.

Chacha further told court under cross examination from Makonis lawyer Admire Rubaya that the accused person signed a deed of settlement with Dr Gono as a means of admitting to the offence.

The investigating officer said if the accused person had nothing to do the with allegations he would not have signed for deed of settlement to settle the funds he had no knowledge of them.

The State alleges that the Makonis orchestrated a sophisticated scheme, beginning with the forgery of a CR14 form. This document, central to the prosecution’s argument, purportedly appointed Clark Makoni as director and company secretary of Valley Lodge, with Beverly Makoni designated as his deputy.

Further accusations include the couple’s alleged misrepresentation to the bank, where they falsely claimed to be new shareholders in a bid to change signatories to Valley Lodge’s bank accounts.

The prosecution firmly contends that through these fraudulent acts, the Makonis illicitly took over the complainant’s company, gained unauthorized access to its bank accounts, and ultimately embezzled the staggering ZWL172 million.