As the asset grabbing, looting and money laundering by Farai Rwodzi and Interfin bank Zimbabwe continues it is important to note the partners who stand by and aid and abet such illegal actions. Moneygram International are one such International organization who are now quickly becoming a willing party in assisting Farai Rwodzi and CFX/Interfin Bank Zimbabwe to launder their proceeds of crime and appear respectable by associating with the MoneyGram International brand despite severe reputation risk which comes with such association.
Money gram International are currently using Banks which they know were grabbed from their owners in Zimbabwe .Moneygram is looking the other way whilst legitimizing asset grabbing and looting thereby facilitating money and asset laundering. Currently Money gram International is using as agents Zimbabwe Amalgamated Banking Group ( ZABG) which is made up of Trust,Royal and Barbican Banks seized from rightful owners.Now they are doing business with CFX/Interfin Bank Zimbabwe who grabbed the Money gram International Franchise held by my Bank CFX Bank.
Finance Bank of Zambia and its Credit Swiss wanted to buy CFX but pulled out due to high reputational risk. Finance Bank of Zambia and its Swiss Financiers pulled out of the transaction because of the unresolved ownership dispute. How can Interfin ignore this?
In money laundering, the proceeds of crime are run through the financial system to disguise their illegal origins and make them appear to be legitimate funds. In this case CFX/Interfin Bank Zimbabwe took over a disputed asset as in buying stolen property and are trying to clean up the transaction and remove any trace from the initial fraud that was committed against me.The involvement of Money gram International provides cover for CFX/Interfin Bank Zimbabwe and Farai Rwodzi to appear legitimate and clean due to Moneygram’s ,International standing.
The ownership dispute was triggered by the special bargain sale of 309,000,000 shares on 12 May 2004 but the total shares claimed by me and my Company is 900,000,000 the balance was transferred in peace meal fashion to avoid detection of the fraud and transaction laundering that was being perpetrated. CFX was nothing more than a forex trading shop which was used to swallow Century Bank as a cover up of the illegal seizure of the Bank. I lost Century Bank shares owned through ENG Capital after they were “fraudulently” converted into CFX Bank which took over Century Bank assets and Branch network.
The 309 Century Financial Holdings Limited Million shares in question were sold through Fidelity Stock brokers on or around May 13, 2004. Within the same week an announcement was then made that CFX Bank was taking over Century Holdings. The shares were sold to a Senior Politician’s reported consortium for Z$2,9 billion when ENG had spent $35 billion to accumulate the shares, thereby prejudicing ENG, Creditors, Investors and contributories of at least Z$32,1 billion.
As ENG Co-founder, Contributory and Shareholder, I wrote to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Chief Executive Mr Emmanuel Munyukwi asking for an investigation because we had agreed with the majority of creditors that the shares should not be sold but rather swapped with creditors and investors instead of selling them at an unreasonable price. But the 309 million Century /CFX Financial Holdings million shares were somehow clandestinely sold and that transaction enabled CFX Bank to take over Century Holdings Limited.
This allowed the reverse listing of CFX Bank on to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. Without those 309 million Century Holdings Limited million shares owned by ENG the CFX/Century merger would have never happened. Senior politicians and their proxies became the new controlling shareholder of the new merged bank. Is this by design or accident? Senior politicians then forced out Mr. Sean Maloney who had helped to put together the transaction. Mr. Sean Maloney had to leave the country under unclear circumstances . Part of the same shares snatched From ENG were later transferred to Premier Bank Financial Holdings which is reportedly owned by a Senior Politician. There has generally been shuffling of shares which is normally associated with covering tracks of an illegal and irregular transaction.
ENG directors and contributories asked the high court to set aside the sale of the shares and the matter action is still before the courts in Harare. We asked Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Committee to investigate. They refused. We asked the brokers for the identity of the buyer of our shares. They refused. The brokers indicated they were under serious pressure from individuals they couldn’t identify to maintain total secrecy on the identity of the buyer. Within a few days of raising the challenge of the CFX/Century shares Justice Minister specified me without affording me a hearing or an enquiry as required by the Constitution of Zimbabwe . There was specification at the instigation of senior politicians who were eyeing assets held by ENG including Century/CFX Bank. The specification was meant to harass, cow, intimidate and silence me from raising further complaints and challenges regarding ENG assets specifically these 309 million shares in Century/CFX Financial Holdings.
Since the ENG shares in Century /CFX Bank Financial Holdings were irregularly transferred the Bank ownership remains in dispute. The ENG shareholders and contributories filed and sought a high court order to stop the transfer of the shares until the dispute had been resolved . The shares were still clandestinely transferred despite the pending high court application to resolve the dispute . After filing for this order My Lawyer the late Oscar Ziweni was also specified by the Minister of Justice and threatened ,harassed and intimidated until he went into hiding. However the point remains ENG Founders, Shareholders and Contributories still lay claim to these shares and stake in Century/ CFX BANK which were looted by Senior Government officials.
The 309 million Century Bank Shares I owned through my Company ENG Capital were fraudulently transferred and converted at the time of the merger between CFX Bank and Century in 2004 and Interfin Bank proceeded to take over CFX ignoring the disputed ownership of FCFX Bank and the attendant reputational risk. I even wrote to Credit Suisse to dissuade them from taking up shareholding in CFX FS. Credit Suisse has 40% shareholding in FBZ.
International firms such as Money Gram International should do proper due diligence of their International partners or they will end up regretting for aiding and abetting money laundering and asset looting and grabbing. There are entities and individuals in Zimbabwe who erroneously believe they are above the law. They have the mistaken belief they can grab, loot, steal assets and get away with it. In the process they try to launder their loot through various disposals and restructurings such as the ones that were done at Century/CFX Bank. This is being fully documented. CFX Bank has had more than 5 Managing Directors in a space of 2 years .This shows the instability brought about by being a disputed asset whilst the looters try to pull “ strings” from behind the scenes.
Interfin Holdings reverse listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) using the infrastructure and legal structure taken over from my bank.Money gram International should know better and trade carefully because giving asset looters and grabbers legitimacy may have negative impact on their reputation.
Whilst Farai Rwodzi and Interfin bank Zimbabwe may get away with the listing on the ZSE for now in the long run they will have huge reputational risk emanating from the CFX Bank ownership dispute which they are trying to sweep under the carpet and rename and rebrand the problem.
This article appears courtesy of GMRI CAPITAL – www.gmricapital.com . It is original content generated for 3MG MEDIA.
Gilbert Muponda is an Investment Banker and Founder of GMRI CAPITAL . He can be reached at; www.ZimFace.com and www.facebook.com/muponda
Email: gilbert@gilbertmuponda.com . Skype ID: gilbert.Muponda
Twitter ; http://twitter.com/gmricapital
Phone: 1-647-994-5542
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