Michael Mashiri
Zim Now Correspondent
The boss of Commerce Veritas - a civil engineering company - who is accused of defrauding the son and executor of the estate of the late Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joel Biggie and Lillian Matiza of US$2 million, has appeared in court.
Martin Tswarai Mutenda, 55, appeared before magistrate Donald Ndirowei at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts facing fraud charges.
He was remanded in custody pending his bail application.
The complainant in this matter is a 26-year-old biological son of the late Lillian Matiza and was duly appointed executor of his mother’s estate.
The State, through prosecutor Mercy Masamvi, alleges that sometime in June 2022, Mutenda who was already in the construction business, purported to enter into a construction business partnership with the late Lillian Matiza.
In this agreement, Mutenda allegedly lied to Lillian that herself, Jorome Leroy and Taurai Negonde would become directors of the company and that he would be appointed company secretary.
Also, Lillian would receive a payment of US$2 000 000 at the end of the construction project.
In exchange for this, Lillian would inject road equipment namely pneumatic roller, paver, a roller and office furniture, which she took from her company, Studio Arts (Pvt) Ltd.
It is alleged that on November 25, last year, Lillian passed on.
Her estate was registered with the Master of High Court and the complainant was duly appointed as the Executor of the estate.
In December 2023, the complainant approached Mutenda, requesting him to transfer the money due to her mother to the Biggie Joel Trust where the complainant and his other relatives are beneficiaries but Mutenda refused.
Inquiries that were done revealed that Mutenda had misrepresented the structure of the company and payment of the US$2 000 000.
As a result, the complainant was prejudiced of approximately US$2 million and nothing was recovered.
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