dyton mupawaenda
Prosper Dembedza-Herald Correspondent
Harare regional magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje has granted $400 000 bail each to four Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) bosses who are facing allegations of stealing US$702 386,80 from the company in a botched gold deal.
Chief executive officer Farai Muchena (54), group strategy and performance executive, Victor Chaipa (39), group secretary Cosmas Mukwesha (50) and performance manager Polite Mugwagwa (41), are facing theft charges.
As part of their bail conditions, the accused persons were ordered to continue residing at their given addresses and not interfere with State witnesses.
They were also ordered to report every Friday at their nearest police stations.
In his ruling, Mr Mambanje said an accused person was a proper candidate for bail unless there were compelling reasons to deny them freedom.
“The court must strike a balance between the liberty of the accused persons and the interests of justice,” he said.
“It is not in doubt that the accused received gold and sold it to Fidelity Printers. The onus lies on the State to show that the accused encountered losses as they are alleging or they committed a crime,” he said
Mr Mambanje said they were no justifiable reasons that warranted the continued detention of the accused persons therefore bail should be granted.
In opposing bail the State submitted that the accused persons were likely to abscond and were also likely to interfere with witnesses.
The court heard that sometime in 2020, the PSMAS board, with the objective of generating the much-needed foreign currency for the procurement of pharmaceutical drugs and other related medical equipment, passed a resolution to the effect that its management ventured into buying and selling of gold.
It was further resolved that staff members from its procurement department were to act as buyers and agents for buying the gold on behalf of the society.
It is further alleged that PSMAS had other investment projects involving cannabis growing and a micro finance business.
On the February 18, 2021, PSMAS, acting on the board resolution, handed over these projects of gold buying, cannabis growing and micro finance business to Premier Service Holding Company to enable them to focus on their core business of health insurance.
On July 13, 2021, Muchena sent a memo to the complainant’s principal officer requesting funding for the gold project which had been taken over from PSMAS.
It is the State’s case that the funding request amounted to US$237 794 with US$108 674 as pre-trading funding.
Furthermore, Muchena advised PSMAS about the formation of a company styled Claydust solely for the buying and selling of gold to Fidelity.
In response, the complainant disposed of its Zimbabwe Bank (ZB) shares totalling to 65 9643 valued at US$38 000 solely for the funding of the aforementioned gold project.
Thereafter and with the intention of stealing money from the complainant, the accused persons, acting in consent, then diverted from the initially agreed position of using complainant’s procurement team in buying the gold on behalf of the Society.
The court heard that instead, the accused persons engaged 18 private agencies unknown to the PSMAS for gold buying. Subsequently, from the period extending from 2019 to 2022, accused persons received gold from five of the private agencies which was then sold to Fidelity by the accused persons realising cash amounting to US $702 386.80 having misled Fidelity printers that they needed hard cash for the purchase of drugs and pharmaceuticals well knowing that they wanted the cash for themselves.
It is alleged that the accused persons then converted the money to own use. During the period in question, PSMAS realised that the Society was not benefitting from the gold buying project as no drugs and pharmaceuticals were being procured for PSMAS hospitals and clinics yet records indicated that gold was being sold.
Subsequently, PSMAS engaged an external auditor, RBM Auditors, to carry out a forensic audit covering the period in question.
An audit was then conducted which unearthed that the accused persons received and converted all the money realized from the sale of gold to Fidelity printers totalling to US $702 386.80 to their own use
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