Man who who served 66 months for fraud in USA has thrown his hat to represent ZANU PF in the parliamentary election for Mazowe North. Campion Takura Mugweni, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade to 66 months (five and one-half years), announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. In addition, Judge Kinkeade ordered that Mugweni pay $1,965,637 in restitution. Mugweni, who stated in a motion for downward departure that he was a citizen of Zimbabwe, was later deported after serving his sentence.
Mugweni, was also ordered to forefeit $40,000 in funds seized during an execution of a search warrant in April 2007 and funds IRS-CI seized from his bank accounts. In addition, US Government also seized a 2005 Hummer H2 vehicle and his 2006 Land Rover Range Rover vehicle.
According to the factual resume filed in the case, Mugweni admitted that from October 2006 until April 2007 that he schemed with others to prepare and electronically file fraudulent income tax returns by using personal identification information without authorization, and then used those fraudulent tax returns, which showed that refunds were owed to the taxpayers, as a basis for obtaining fraudulent refund anticipation loans from banks.
“Identity theft is a serious crime with serious consequences. CI will continue to aggressively pursue those who file false tax returns with stolen identities to claim refunds to which they are not entitled,” said Michael Lahey, IRS Special Agent in Charge for the Dallas Field Office.”
It remains to be seen if Zimbabweans will chose a known fraudster in a country that has been brought to its knees by fraud and corruption.-PaZimbabwe
