Company loses ZWL53 million to former employee

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Michael Mashiri

A Morgan & Co former finance manager who defrauded more than ZWL$53 million has appeared before magistrate Dennis Mangosi on fraud charges.

The complainant in the matter is Morgan & Co, a company which deals with stock broking and is also mandated in paying remittances to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, ZIMDEF, NSSA and Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe.

Vukoma who resigned on January, 31, 2023, was once employed by the company as a finance manager.

It is the state’s case that in February 2023, Morgan & Co received an email from Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe informing them that they were in arrears.

This prompted them to send some proof of payments to the Security and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe showing that they were paying all their dues and were therefore not in arrears.

The Securities and Exchange Commission then dishonored such proof of payments on grounds that the ZB Bank account number on the proof of payments did not belong to them.

Morgan & Co made internal investigations and discovered that the ZB account numbers of all proof of payments did not belong to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe, but instead to Vukomba, Theophilus Mapfurira, Rutendo Choruwa and Prince Mupangavanhu. A police report was then made.

Initial investigations established that, between February 28, 2022 to November 25, 2022 and on various occasions, Vukomba raised requisition invoices implying as if he wanted to make payments to ZIMRA, NSSA, ZIMDEF and Security Exchange Commission.

He would take the requisition invoices to the authorized signatories where they would be duly signed. After that, he would then transfer money signed for to individual bank accounts belonging to friends and his personal account.

Vukomba, transferred a total of ZWL$13 080 430.93 to his personal ZB account, ZWL$10 641 858. 83 to Prince Mupangavanhu’s ZB account, ZWL$26 059 918.41 to Rutendo Choruwa’s ZB account and ZWL$1 889 979.86 to Theophilus Mapfurira’s ZB account.

The total amount that was defrauded due to Vukomba's actions is ZWL$53 129 574.70 and nothing recovered.

Mangosi ordered Vukomba to pay ZWL$500 000 bail to the clerk of court and he was instructed to surrender his passport to the clerk of court and to report to the the Commercial Crime Division once per week.

He will appear in court on May 8, 2023 for remand routine.