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Tendai Rupapa Harare Bureau
FORMER BancABC managing director Hashmon Matemera yesterday appeared in court on allegations of conniving with officials from Jinan Mining Pvt Ltd to externalise more than $330 million.

The money was part of $628,792,555 investments funds injected in the country by Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company [AFECC] through a joint agreement with Marange Resources Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary company of ZMDC.

The joint agreement gave birth to Jinan Mining on an equal shareholding of 50 percent and the core business was diamond mining in Chiadzwa.

Matemera, 52, is alleged to have assisted officials from Jinan to open a BancABC transitory account without the required documents.

The officials, with the help of Matemera, later smuggled out $332,980 to Botswana before it was transferred to China, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia, Sierra Leone and Dubai, the State alleged.

Matemera appeared before Harare magistrate Vakayi Chikwekwe charged with contravening the Exchange Control Act.

He was freed on $10,000 bail coupled with stringent conditions.

The State had consented to $5,000 bail, but Chikwekwe felt it was little and doubled the amount. He also added another condition in which he ordered Matemera to surrender title deeds worth $250,000 as surety.

He was also ordered to report thrice a week to the police, to surrender his passport and to continue residing at his given address until the matter is finalised.

Matemera’s lawyer Advocate Thabani Mpofu pleaded with the court to lower the bail amount citing the cash shortages in the country, but Chikwekwe stuck to his guns.

Chikwekwe remanded the matter to June 15 and advocate Mpofu notified the court of his intentions to apply for refusal of remand on that date.

The prosecutor, Sebastian Mutizirwa, alleged that on January 9, 2012, Jinan Mining (Pvt) Ltd opened a BancABC transitory account number 11753255402024 held at Mt Pleasant Branch.

The account received a total of $628,792,555.02 from AFECC as investment funds in Zimbabwe.

It is the State’s case that the account was unprocedurally opened as it was a non-compliant account because it was without “know your customer” (KYC) documentation.

The company did not produce identification cards and proof of residence for all directors, passport size photos, board resolution, tax certificate, form CR 14, form 6 and Zimra Tax clearance certificate.

Matemera, it is alleged, facilitated the opening of the bank account without the above mentioned documents.

During the period extending from April 11, 2013, to April 1, 2014, Bai Xiangqian, Qingde Jiang and Bei Bei Ma who are still at large, acting in connivance with Matemera, transferred a total of $332,98 million from the account into the BancABC Botswana account purportedly for investment in that country, the State alleged.

However, according to the State, extra territorial investigations established that all the $332,98 million was never used in that country and instead it was moved out of the Botswana BancABC account and distributed to other six countries namely China, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Sierra Leone and Dubai.

Only $11,727,272 was transferred back to Zimbabwe, the court heard.