THE High Court has freed the six people accused of using their business to facilitate illegal foreign currency transactions involving $5 billion.
In the bail appeal
ruling delivered by High Court judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi yesterday, the
companies Bailey Charamba Investments and Family First Choice Supermarket were
excluded from the bail proceedings.
He granted Simbarashe Charamba $50 000 bail and Felix
Chikuse, Vimbai Charamba, Rudo Charamba, Shumirai Charamba and Gideon Kabanda
were ordered to deposit $30 000 each.
They have all been ordered to continue residing at their
given addresses and report twice a week at the nearest police stations. Chitapi
said the magistrates’ court should have considered that money laundering and
contravening the Excise Control Act had a non-custodial penalty provision.
He said the State had failed to proffer cogent reasons why
the suspects should be denied bail. “The learned regional magistrate accepted
that the first charge of dealing in foreign currency was a finable offence in
the first instance.
The same applies to the money laundering charge in that a
fine is provided for in the first instance. “As a general rule the fact that an
offence has a provision for a fine as opposed to mandatory imprisonment may act
as a disincentive to the applicant who applies for bail to want to abscond,”
Chitapi said.
Prosecutor Michael Reza alleged that between January 1 and
June 30 this year, Simbarashe Charamba — acting in connivance with his
co-accused — manipulated a mobile money platform by registering a bulk payer
agent line and a number of agent lines which he used to facilitate the purchase
of foreign currency from the public.
Employees at Family First Choice Supermarket allegedly
conducted forex transactions from the supermarket offices on the specific
direction of Charamba — buying foreign currency from the parallel market.
In pursuing their alleged arrangement, the State alleges
that they transacted a total of $4 979 643 231.81 through the bulk agent line
and redistributed this to 40 different Bailey Charamba Investments agent lines
in order to disguise the illicit origins of the money.
Chikuse and Kabanda, as the directors of Bailey Charamba
Investments, allegedly received commission from Charamba monthly as the
registered owners of the 40 agent lines used in facilitating the transactions.
The State alleges that their actions were in violation of
the Exchange Control Act as read with the Money Laundering and Proceeds of
Crime Act. Daily News
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