Warrant of arrest for Genius Kadungure over 2012 fraud charges
Business Crime & Courts Zimbabwe

Warrant of arrest for Genius Kadungure over 2012 fraud charges

HARARE – A warrant of arrest has been issued for socialite and gas salesman Genius Kadungure, who failed to attend court a second time on Monday.

Kadungure and tender businessman Wicknell Chivayo are jointly charged with two counts of fraud.

Harare magistrate Morgan Nemadire issued a warrant for Kadungure’s arrest after his lawyer, Jonathan Samukange, told court the 34-year-old was unable to appear as he is in the United States of America.

The warrant will be cancelled if he presents himself in court on October 9, when their trial is due to start.

Advocate Lewis Uriri is representing Chivayo.

The pair is accused of conning Chegutu West legislator Dexter Nduna of R535,000 and a second man of R1 million back in 2012.

Chivayo and Kadungure were previously arrested on the same charges, but prosecutors had abandoned the case under unclear circumstances.

 

In November 2012, Chivayo allegedly connived with Kadungure and created a fictitious company called Transco Civil Engineering (Transco), purportedly based in South Africa, and opened an ABSA bank account.

They allegedly opened an email account procurement@marangediamonds.com purporting to be representatives of Marange Diamonds. They were renting computing space at Hetzner (Pvt) Ltd in South Africa.

Chivayo and Kadungure, acting in connivance, then contacted one Gatawa, the managing director of Even Mine and Milling Centre in Kadoma and misrepresented that they were buyers for Marange Resources looking for mining pumps.

They allegedly gave Gatawa an order to supply 10 T-90 Transco-Flo Helical Rotor pumps and referred him to Transco, knowing that it was a fictitious company.

Gatawa then sent his younger brother, Enock Gatawa, to deposit R446,900 into the ABSA account on December 4, 2012. A further R600,000 was deposited later the same day in two instalments.

After transferring the money, Gatawa contacted Transco and was told to return to Zimbabwe and wait for delivery of the pumps from DHL within three days.

Gatawa got a parcel that had cellphone chargers instead, and realised that they had been swindled.

Kadungure, the court heard, used R500,000 to buy wholesale gas from Reatile Gas in South Africa and another R500,000 was transferred to Edward Teka’s bank account. Teka, say prosecutors, stated that the money was later withdrawn and handed over to Chivayo and Kadungure.

The total prejudice to Gatawa was R1,046.890.

On the second count, the two men allegedly targeted Chegutu West MP Dexter Nduna using the same modus operandi.

They opened an ABSA bank account for a company called Always on Pumps (Pvt) Ltd. They told Nduna they wanted him to supply pumps for Marange Resources at a lucrative price.

Nduna was given an order for 20 T-90 Transco-Flo Helical Rotor pumps and advised that the preferred supplier was Always on Pumps. He transferred R535,000 to the supplied bank account on November 13, 2012.

A day later, a small box was delivered to Nduna’s friend, named only as Eric, at Platinum Trucks in Johannesburg. The items delivered were not the pumps.

Nduna tried to reach Always on Pumps but all the communication mediums he had previously used were no longer reachable.-ZimLive

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