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Prosper Dembedza
Herald Correspondent
A Harare man lost US$80 000 to a con-artist who operated a Ponzi Scheme disguised as Homelife Furniture and Electrical Appliance Company.
Fraud suspect Emmanuel Chikweza, who is being charged together with his company, Homelife Furniture and Electrical Appliance Company, appeared before Harare magistrate Dennis Mangosi at the weekend and was remanded in custody to today for bail application.
The complainant is Brighton Ushendibaba.
Allegations are that sometime in January 2023, Chikweza approached the complainant and made a misrepresentation that if complainant gave to him a total of US$80 000, he his company would in return make sure that complainant would get monthly profit of US$25 000.
It is alleged that this promise of return on investment was meant to entice the complainant into investing US$80 000 in Chikweza’s company.
The State alleged that from March 2023 to date, the complainant made follow-ups with the accused person for the promised profits but accused became evasive and was no longer answering the complainants’ calls leading to a police report.
It is alleged that this was when complainant realised that he had been duped.
Investigations revealed that the accused person never invested the money and lacked capacity to pay the amounts as initially promised.
The accused person allegedly never paid the complainant the monthly profits of US$25 000 but instead converted the capital injected to his own use thereby prejudicing the complainant of US$80 000. Nothing was recovered.
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