By Staff Reporter
LAWYERS representing a Harare couple accused of defrauding former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono have described the case as weak and riddled with contradictions adding that they are going to apply for discharge after the State closed its case.
Clark Clever Makoni and his wife Beverly Aisha Ndonda Makoni are facing fraud allegations which they have denied as frivolous and malice peddled by Gono whom they accuse of extortion.
On Friday, the State led evidence from the investigating officer Eric Chacha who appeared to be contradicting what the complainant Gono said.
The State alleges that in July 2017, Gono engaged the services of the accused persons to manage Valley Lodge, among other businesses.
The State also alleges that the couple forged a CR14 form for Valley Lodge [Pvt] ]Ltd] in which Clark Makoni appointed himself a director and company secretary and Beverly Makoni as director in Valley Lodge.
Chacha alleged that after the couple began managing Valley Lodge, they secretly altered the CR14 without Gono’s knowledge, and that the company’s directors didn’t authorize the changes.
He told the court that the couple changed signatories on the company’s bank account.
Upon being pressed by defence lawyer Admire Rubaya to name who the original signatories were, he stated that it was Gono and one Omar which was contrary to what Gono told the court.
He could not state which of the two different versions was the court to rely on.
Gono denied being a signatory to the bank account.
The defence further pressed the investigating officer to produce the bank statements for the couple or their company Ark Properties indicating that there was money from Valley Lodge to them.
Chacha said there were no such documents, adding that there was no money which moved from Valley Lodge to Ark Properties.
The defence also took issue with the allegation that after the couple grabbed the company, they gave themselves positions, with Clark making himself the managing director while Beverly was the finance director.
Chacha was shown an email which was amongst the documents chacha had produced as evidence and had been authored by the auditor Lindiwe Sabeka which named Beverly as an employee of Valley Lodge and a financé director and not as estate agents.
The defence further alleged there was an ulterior motive in the arrest of the couple through the collusion of Sabeka,a former Zacc officer now an employee at Gono’s Galwex firm using her connections.
The defence further said the matter was investigated in Harare by Harare investigators yet there are Zacc offices in Mutare.
“Zacc has offices in Mutare but the matter came to Harare. You also worked with Sabeka at Zacc that is why the matter came to you,” Rubaya said.
