By Judith Nyuke
Dairibord’s group finance director Leonard Mutunga was left counting losses after a Crown Bank employee allegedly swindled him of US$96 000 in a fake loan collateral scam involving a deceased person.
Susan Shamiso Charewa from Aspindale Park, Harare, stands accused of defrauding Mutunga (44) by misrepresenting the ownership of the residential property used as security for the loan.
Charewa recently appeared before Harare magistrate, Ms Ruth Moyo.
The State alleges that sometime in November 2024, Charewa reportedly approached Mutunga requesting financial assistance claiming she urgently needed a US$96 000 loan.
She was accompanied by two men whom she introduced as her father Kennedy Chatambudza Chinyowa and her son Shingirirai Maruta.
To secure the loan, Charewa alleged that her father had agreed to cede Stand Number 1879 Mutoko Road, New Marlborough, Harare as collateral.
Mutunga trusted this assurance and allegedly handed over the cash on December 5, 2024 in the presence of a witness Wadzanayi Manyika.
A formal loan agreement was signed requiring Charewa to repay the sum in three equal instalments of US$32 000 over three months.
By March 2025, Charewa had failed to honour the repayment agreement despite multiple attempts by Mutunga to recover the funds.
Mutunga then sought legal recourse from the High Court of Zimbabwe to auction the property used as collateral.
However, investigations revealed that the pledged property belonged to a deceased estate and was never legally owned by Charewa.
It was later revealed that Kennedy Chinyowa, the man she claimed was her father had died on June 19, 2021—three years before the loan agreement was executed.
Unable to recover his money, Mutunga reported the matter to ZRP Milton Park.
Charewa was subsequently arrested at her workplace on December 3, 2025, but the money was not recovered.
