By Judith Nyuke
The trial of four men including two Nigerian nationals accused of hacking the email account of a Grain Marketing Board (GMB) accountant, allegedly causing the parastatal a potential prejudice of US$1,200,000, has kicked off at the Harare Magistrates’ Court.
Dennis Nhapata, 40, Challenge Phiri, 40, Joshua Israel, 44, Ogbonna Simeon, 54, appeared before magistrate Francis Mapfumo charged with two counts of fraud.
In their defence, Nhapata and Phiri said they were merely intermediaries in a transaction they believed to be legitimate. If at all there was any fraudulent activity in the transaction, they had no knowledge of it.
Israel who according to State papers was arrested while waiting to collect his share of the money at Holiday Inn Hotel denied the allegations saying he was tasked by his brother in law to collect some money on his behalf. He was to later receive instructions of where to send the money.
The complainant in this case is GMB being represented by Misheck Mupondiwa, who is employed by the Board as an Integrity Officer.
The State represented by Heather Muwokoto alleges that on 9 September 2024, the accused persons connived and hacked email address belonging to Parrence Chikerema, who is employed as an accountant by GMB.
The four then reportedly used the email address to send an application for Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) to CBZ Bank, Selous Branch purporting to be the complainant.
The application instructed CBZ bank to transfer a sum of US$12 000 000-00 from the GMB CBZ account into a Success Microfinance Treasury bank account.
The Court heard that on 10 September 2024, CBZ bank inquired from GMB if they had authorised the transfer of US$1200 000-00 and they denied.
The complainant, upon making inquiries at Success Microfinance Bank, was advised that Brain Maputo was the owner of the intended transferred money.
Brain Maputo was then invited by Success Bank and he indicated that Nhapata was the owner of the intended transferred money.
After the matter was reported to the police, Nhapata was arrested while waiting to collect the US$1,200,000 from Brain Maputo, and upon his arrest, he implicated Phiri and Israel, who were also waiting to collect their shares of the money.
While communicating with Nhapata, Israel and Simeon were arrested at the Holiday Inn Hotel while waiting to collect their share of the money.
As a result of the accused person’s action, the complainant suffered a potential prejudice of US$1200 000-00.
On the second count, the State alleges that on 9 September 2024, the accused persons connived and hacked an email address of Parrence Chikerema, who is employed as an accountant by the complainant.
The four then used the email address to send a ZETSS payment form to AFC Bank, Nelson Mandela Branch, Harare. The application instructed AFC Bank to transfer a sum of US$150 000-00 from the complainant AFC account into a Success Microfinance Treasury bank account.
AFC bank reportedly acted upon the misrepresentation and transferred the US$150 000 into the said Success bank account.
The Court heard that on 10 September 2024, the complainant discovered the offence after visiting Success Bank inquiring about the first transaction of US$1 200 000.
The complainant was advised by Success Bank that there was another US$150 000, which had been successfully transferred by the accused persons and was ready for collection.
The matter was reported to police leading to the arrest of the four accused persons.
It is the state’s case that as a result of accused persons’ actions, the complainant suffered an actual prejudice of US$150 000-00, and all was recovered.
The matter was remanded to 9 October for trial continuation.
