Online Reporter
Zvikomborero Parafini
A CHINESE national, who is a trader in cryptocurrency, appeared in court yesterday facing allegations of duping a local investor who had injected US$6,300 but did not get any returns.
Tang Lindong was not asked to plead when he appeared before Harare magistrate Isheanesu Matova.
He was remanded in custody.
The complainant is Webster Zuvarinopisa.
The court heard that in November last year, Lindong and other accomplices interacted with Zuvarinopisa on Telegram.
They lured him into online Crypto currency trading giving an impression that he was going to get profit from tasks performed online.
Zuvarinopisa got interested with the offer and started acknowledging prompts given to him by Lindong.
He was initially rewarded with US$1 via an Ecocash payment platform for the first task he had completed.
Lindong allegedly then created an online USDT crypto currency account for Zuvarinopisa and went on to instruct him to deposit money into various supplied Ecocash wallets.
Zuvarinopisa made various deposits, amounting to a total of US$6 329.
But, when he was about to claim his rewards, Lindong froze the account.
Zuvarinopisa made a police report and investigations were carried out leading to the arrest of Lindong’s accomplice Chioneso Rutsito, who then implicated Lindong, as well others who are still at large.
Using the same modus operandi Lindong allegedly duped the second complainant, Hilman Nyamai, of US$3517.
Rufaro Chonzi appeared for the State.
