Zaac boss Gumbo to stand trial for fraud

owned with four of his subordinates.

He appeared before Mr Donald Ndirowei yesterday who remanded him to May 20 for trial. Chief law officer Mr Michael Mugabe appeared for the State.
The State alleged that in 2010, Zacc approached the Home Affairs ministry seeking alternative accommodation when their landlords were about to evict them.

The ministry instructed Gumbo to look for alternative property and he identified 872 Betterment Close in Mt Pleasant that belonged to Diane Spalletah.
It is alleged that Gumbo went back to the ministry where he requested for US$1 680 000 to buy the property and Government deposited US$1,7 million into a Zacc account.

Gumbo allegedly instructed his subordinates Sukai Tongogara, Edwin Mubataripi, Christopher Chisango and Gibson Mangwiro to form a shelf company called Property Mortgage where they became directors with equal shares.

A Zacc administration and human resources manager deposited the US$1 680 000 into a CBZ account for Perpetual Properties trust account.
It is believed that Gumbo’s daughter was an administrator for Perpetual Properties and she was the one who did the transactions.

The property was bought for US$1,2 million, which was fully paid to the owner Spalletah by Perpetual Properties. Perpetual Properties deducted their commission amounting to US$44 500, leaving a balance of US$435 500.

It is the State’s contention that US$160 000 was used for the purchase of a property owned by Poptechnologies where Gumbo and Popatlal Samir are directors. A person called Da Silva was given US$100 000, while Samir received US$95 000.
Gumbo allegedly allocated US$80 000 for “renovations.”