admin
Prosper Dembedza
Herald Correspondent
THE director of Cupori Investments (Pvt) Ltd, Lewis Tsvere, yesterday appeared in court on fraud and money laundering charges after he allegedly defrauded unnamed complainants of more than US$260 000.
Harare magistrate Mr Dennis Mangosi remanded Tsvere (47) in custody until today for his bail hearing.
On count one, the court heard that on October 27, 2022, the first complainant came to Zimbabwe to look for potential investments. He did research and decided on mining.
In March last year he met Tsvere through an unnamed Chinese friend.
It is alleged that Tsvere claimed that he had many copper and gold mining claims around Zimbabwe. It is the State’s case that Tsvere took the complainant to Headlands, where he viewed 300 hectares and was told the land had high-grade copper ore, with test results showing the percentage of metal at between 5 and 10 percent.
The court heard that Tsvere further took the complainant to a gold mine in Odzi, where there were some trenches that show that mining activities were in progress. The complainant took some samples and tested them. The test results were high in gold ore.
Seeing such good test results, the complainant was convinced that these were good claims. He then started negotiating with Tsvere and agreed to buy three mining claims valued at US$280 000, the 300ha at Headlands, another 480ha site in the same area that Tsvere said held gold, copper and diamonds, and the Odzi claim of 200ha.
Thereafter on March 24, a sale and purchase agreement was signed. The agreement indicated all the co-ordinates and provisional co-ordinates for the three mines with a total purchase price of US$280 000.
The court heard that Tsvere claimed in the agreement to be the registered owner of all those mining claims. The complainant paid US$100 000 upon signing the agreement and the money was handed over to Tsvere who was going to start the process of transferring of the mines into the complainant’s name.
The complainant requested Tsvere to transfer the ownership of the 300 hectares copper claim first, but he refused and insisted that the 480 hectares should be transferred first, alleging that there was gold, diamonds and copper on that land.
It is alleged that Tsvere asked the complainant to pay for extra costs. The complainant eventually paid another US$100.
On April 5 , both parties signed another agreement specifically for the 480 hectares at an agreed value of US$50 000. On the April 6 Tsvere signed an acknowledgment receipt as proof that he received a total amount of US$200 000.
Tsvere went on to transfer ownership of the 480 hectares only and never transferred ownership of the other two claims measuring 300 and 200 hectares. He started changing goal posts in terms of the value of the mines.
Apart from paying US$200 000, the complainant also paid him US$30 000 in cash to assist in registering the Odzi mine, now said to be on 1 000 hectares. During the process he incurred several other costs such as travel, accommodation, geologists and engineers fees.
Afterwards, the complainant then hired a geologist called Tafadzwa who went on to do geological tests on the 480ha mine for two months, but he found nothing. The area was empty contrary to what Tsvere had said that it held diamonds, gold and copper deposits.
The complainant was now a little sceptical; one of his unnamed Chinese friends reminded him that Tsvere could be a fraudster. The complainant then went to the Ministry of Mines to check the coordinates of the 300-hectare copper claim.
He was told that this 300-hectare claim had been registered by another person as early as 2014 and 2016.
The complainant further checked the co-ordinates which Tsvere had also provided for the Odzi mine and found that the mine belonged to someone else whereas on the agreement he claimed to be the owner of the mines. The complainant then realised that he had been duped and decided to report the matter to the police.
Investigations were carried out through the Ministry of Mines And Mining Development which indicated that the co-ordinates in section 105 on the agreement of sale purported to be owned by the accused were registered under Hongji Mineral Development.
The accused was then arrested.
As a result of this misrepresentation, the complainant suffered an actual prejudice of US$260 000, and nothing was recovered.
On the second count, it is alleged that sometime in March 2023, the second complainant met Tsvere at Travel Plaza, on the corner of Mazowe Street and Josiah Chinamano Avenue in Harare’s Avenues area where Tsvere allegedly indicated that he was able to secure three lithium claims for the complainant in Mutare.
They then agreed on a purchase price of US$1 250 per lithium claim. The complainant then gave Tsvere a total of US$3 300.
In May 2023, the complainant met Tsvere at the same venue where he brought a map with 24 lithium claims including the three claims he had purchased.
The court heard that he convinced the complainant to partner him in purchasing the remaining five claims on the map.
Acting upon the misrepresentation, the complainant agreed and was made to pay a total of US$ 3 000 towards the purchase of those five claims.
He then promised to register the claims in the complainant’s name, but the accused never registered them and he was nowhere to be found prompting the complainant to report the matter to the police leading to the arrest of Tsvere.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter