Advice which Farai Rwodzi & Interfin Banking Corporation Zimbabwe ignored

Advice which Farai Rwodzi & Interfin Banking Corporation Zimbabwe ignored
It appears Zimbabwe has a new breed of Bankers like Mr Farai Rwodzi and Interfin Bank who are under some illusion that they are above the law. Normally in Banking when there is a problem between Bankers a simple phone call can fix the problem ,usually there is no need to use lawyers or courts especially when the people involved know each other. Lawyers normally come in to formalize an agreement that Bankers agree among themselves. Such is the tradition of Banking.
Since the Century/CFX/Interfin Bank ownership dispute has started I have since discovered that Interfin Banking Corporation Zimbabwe and Mr Farai Rwodzi believe they are high and might and would not talk to a fellow Banker even when confronted with facts.
Initially I wrote a letter which should have been enough to initiate discussions to resolve the dispute. Then I called Mr Farai Rwodzi personally and he banged the phone. Such attitude amongst Bankers is not expected and its not progressive. In the long run it does more harm than good.
The following text is a letter of advice I wrote on the legal aspects of my case and my opposition against Interfin Holdings’ then proposed acquisition of Century/CFX Bank holdings.
“The Shareholders
Interfin Holdings Limited
15th Floor, NSSA Building
Cnr Sam Nujoma St/Julius Nyerere Way
HARARE
4 November 2009
Attention: Mr. R. Njanike
Dear Gentlemen and Lady,
RE : PROPOSED INTERFIN ACQUISITION OF MY BANK – CENTURY/CFX BANK
LIMITED
at Law dated 2 November 2009 and my letter of
yesterday to your Board of Directors. The purpose of this letter is to
warn Interfin Financial Holdings Limited not to interpose itself in
the CFX ownership dispute as you may regret that transaction. Interfin
should not meddle in this as the consequences will be dire.Finance
Bank of Zambia and its Swiss Financiers pulled out of this transaction
because of the unresolved ownership dispute.How can Interfin ignore
this?
(1) Current CFX Bank lawyers a flaunting around their “legal
opinion” as fact. Firstly CFX Bank lawyers are compromised as they
can not provide an Independent legal opinion in a matter in which they
have an interest since they are representing the respondent. They have
a conflict of interest and should have recused themselves in providing
the legal opinion. It appears as though they just provided this
“legal opinion” to earn fees knowing fully well that their opinion
in this matter was not even worth the piece of paper it was written
on.
(2) Their purported legal opinion is rather misplaced and
misdirected in as much as it seeks to analyze current ENG legal status
.The current status is immaterial since we are trying to correct fraud
and theft which resulted in ENG being incapacitated.
(3) Further CFX Bank Lawyers are assuming that since I remain
specified in Zimbabwe therefore I have no capacity to vigorously
pursue this matter. This is fallacious and ill advised .I hope the
same lawyers are aware that Financial markets do not operate in a
vacuum and in the bigger scheme of things Financial markets are not
controlled from Harare. As indicated previously no stone will be left
unturned till justice prevails on this matter. This means all legal
options are on the table and legal action is being pursued in several
jurisdictions.
(4) CFX Bank lawyers are further peddling a tired lie that the
shares were being sold to pay off ENG creditors. This totally ignores
where the matter started and how it developed into a crisis. The
original and official allegation was that ENG Capital was a brief
case Company which had no meaningful assets. ENG and Myself were
further demonized and smeared, that the only visible assets acquired
were cars. Shouldn’t CFX Lawyers be addressing this anomaly. How
can a brief case Company own 309 million shares in a Bank. How come
the public was not clearly told that ENG owned a Bank .Why was there
over focus on cars which made up less than 1% of ENG’s Capital base?
Assuming for one moment that ENG had real problems ,why wasn’t it
well advertised that even though ENG was having problems it owned a
Bank and bidders would be invited to take over that Bank and pay a
fair price? Why was the disposal being done clandestinely and under
cover of darkness?
(5) ENG was sufficiently liquid and solvent to meet its liabilities
but despite all this its cheques were being bounced and dishonored.
This act alone of bouncing and dishonoring cheques of a Financial
Institution creates panic and an impression of a Bankrupt Institution.
It must be noted that First Mutual Life and National Discount House,
being ENG counter parties in fact sued Zimbank for irregularly
dishonoring ENG cheques at a time when the ENG account was fully
funded and had sufficient funds to meet its liabilities. This clearly
confirms a well calculated campaign to close down ENG and grab its
assets.
(6) I am sure you were told that ENG CAPITAL had many cars, and
these cars were the only assets that ENG had. The correct and accurate
facts are that ENG was a Group of Companies of which the Companies had
Directors, Managers and employees and the cars were for the use of
these members of staff who ran the various companies which made up
ENG CAPITAL.
(7) ENG Capital group had a market value of US$ 175 million, just
before the RBZ descended on the Institution.
Below is a brief ENG Group Structure ;
ENG HOLDINGS GROUP STRUCTURE
- SUBSIDIARIES
- ENG CAPITAL INVESTMENTS PVT LTD
- ENG ASSET MANAGEMENT PVT LTD
- ENG REAL ESTATE
- ENG NOMINEES PVT LTD
- ENG PRIVATE EQUITY (PVT) LTD
- ENG CAPITAL ADVISORY SERVICES
- ENG STRUCTURED FINANCE
ADDITIONAL MAJOR ASSETS OWNED
- Century Bank Holdings (now CFX bank)
- Leasing Company of Zimbabwe, (Century Asset Managers)
- Century Discount House
- Hybri Micro-Finance Institution
- Care Insurance PVT LTD
- RestCel Insurance PVT LTD
- Amalgamated Health Services (Harare West Hospital )
- 15% of OK Zimbabwe Limited
- 15% of Zimplow Holdings Limited
- 20% Medtech Holdings Limited
- Hornet Re-Insurance PVT LTD
- Pearl Pension Fund Management
- 25 % Clan Holdings Limited
- 25 % Zimbabwe News Papers Group – Zimpapers Limited
- Allied Conveyor Belts PVT LTD
- River Drilling PVT LTD
- Real Estate including (Anastasia Court, Belgravia House, Thaine
Building)
- Various Listed ZSE Listed shares
- Treasury Bills
- GMB Bills
- Cargill Commercial Paper
- $ 4 billion – Alliance Capital Debenture (representing 123 million
First Mutual Life shares)
- 23 Million First Mutual Life shares
This is relevant as it proves beyond any doubt that ENG was a solid
Group of Companies. It was targeted out of greed by plotters including
Senior Politicians who wanted to loot and grab assets.
(8) This mêlée was nothing more than a ploy to infringe upon my
citizenship rights and strip me of my assets; a well orchestrated
political game to deny perceived enemies of Senior Politician’s
financial freedom.
(9) My battle against civil asset forfeiture is one for the
preservation of freedom and property. This is an important area as
Zimbabwe seeks to portray an image of a stable state with the rule
of law and private property rights are protected and preserved.
(10) All facts indicate to a grand miscarriage of Justice.
(11) A miscarriage of justice occurred as ENG and its directors now
bear the burden of proving their innocence. The preponderance of
evidence, which means that the RBZ only must make a better case -
however slight, than the property owner – ENG.
(12) 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.
(13) 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.
(14) 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.
(15) 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.
(16) 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.
In conclusion Interfin Holdings Limited should consider itself
warned. Interfin should stay clear of CFX Bank until this matter is
resolved. 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.
For the sake of transparency I am copying this letter to the
following ;
Minister of Finance Zimbabwe
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor – Dr Gono
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange CEO – Mr Emmanuel Munyukwi
CFX BANK Board of Directors
Zimbabwe Parliament -Budget, Finance and Investment Promotion
Members Below
Hon Zhanda , Hon. Beremauro, Hon. Bhebhe A, Hon. Chinyadza, Hon.
Cross, Hon. Khumalo ,M Hon. Madzimure, Hon. Mashakada, Hon.
Matshalaga, Hon. Mudiwa, Hon. Muguti, Hon. Mukanduri, Hon. Ndava, Hon.
Nyaude. Committee Clerk- Mr Ratsakatika
My full contact details are below should you need any
clarification.
Yours Faithfully,
Gilbert Muponda
Toronto ,Canada
1-416-841-5542
1-647-994-5542
Email – gilbert@gilbertmuponda.com[1]
http://www.facebook.com/muponda[2]
Skype ID – gilbert.muponda
Links:
——
[1] mailto:gilbert@gilbertmuponda.com
[2] http://www.facebook.com/muponda”