Mutodi fraud probe widens

Mutodi (34) is accused of swindling more than 16 000 civil servants of more than US$6 million in the housing scam.
CID spokesperson Detective Sergeant Sharon Musendo said they believed several other people were defrauded by Mutodi but had not reported their cases.

“We are calling upon people who were defrauded by Energy Mutodi but had not reported their cases to the police to report at CID Serious Frauds Squad,” said Det Sgt Musendo.
“His case is still pending before the courts and he is out on bail. Through investigations we have discovered that there are thousands of other people who were defrauded.”

Early this month, Mutodi notified the court of his intentions to apply for refusal of further remand. Mutodi is being charged with fraud.
Through his lawyers, Mutodi said he would make an application for refusal of further remand on the next remand date on July 28, if he was not furnished with a trial date.

But prosecutor Mr Tungamirai Chakurira said the State was not ready to provide Mutodi with a trial date citing intricacies in the matter involving more than 1 000 witnesses.
“How, honestly, could defence counsel expect us to be ready to give a trial date so soon?

“Accused has only been on remand for two weeks, defence counsel is simply not serious,” he said responding to submissions by Mr Tendai Hangazha, who is acting for Mutodi in the matter.

“Even on the next remand date we will not be ready,” he added. Magistrate Mr Donald Ndirowei deferred the matter to July 28.
Mr Chakurira alleges that sometime in 2006, Mutodi formed the National Housing Delivery Trust with other trustees. It was agreed that the trust would appoint trustees that would constitute a board of trustees with Mutodi as chairman.

The purported objective of the trust was to acquire land in urban areas and towns and service it for residential purposes for its clients or members.
It is the State’s case that Mutodi knew that the trust was created as a vehicle to fleece money from home seekers.

A Kingdom Bank account was opened for which Mutodi was one of the signatories. The account was meant to secure all contributions from members of the trust and the funds were meant to procure land, service and build houses for clients under different schemes but nothing of the sort happened.

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