Zesa money laundering and fraud suspect granted ba...

Zesa money laundering and fraud suspect granted bail.

Michael Mashiri

A Zesa Holdings billing clerk, who appeared in court accused of fraud and money laundering, has been given bail.

Joseph Wagusiwa, 39, of Kadoma, appeared before magistrate Dennis Mangosi at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts on allegations of fraud and money laundering.

The complainant in this case is Zesa Holdings.

The State, through prosecutor Thomas Chanakira, alleges that from January 2018, Wagusiwa advertised the sale of electricity tokens on social media platforms.

As a result, 242, of which 94, were from Kadoma who were not eligible for refunds contacted Wagusiwa whom they allegedly gave various amounts in US dollars and their Zesa meter numbers for the purchase of electricity tokens.

It is alleged that Wagusiwa contacted one Darlington Chiputura and gave him meter numbers of the clients for him to generate the electricity tokens and also give refunds to those clients despite the fact that they were not eligible for the refunds. Chiputura would then use his Ecocash account to buy electricity tokens for the clients.

The State alleges that after that, Wagusiwa would credit Zesa with an amount less than the value of tokens generated and send the tokens to Chiputura’s mobile number.

On different dates, Wagusiwa would send part of the US dollars received from clients on Darlington Chiputura’s Mukuru account.

When Zesa discovered the offence, they engaged the services of Grant Thornton Forensic auditors, who established that Wagusiwa had caused Zesa to lose US$20 456 and ZWL$852 594.22.

He was ordered to deposit US$200 and will appear in court on December 1.