ZANU PF Makoni West aspiring candidate, Moses Ruwona, was released on $300 000 bail yesterday in a case where he faces fraud charges involving US$500 000.
He spent two weeks in remand prison. Ruwona is charged alongside Macmillan Chiweshe.
Harare magistrate Stanford Mambanje ordered the duo to report once every Friday at their nearest police station.
It is alleged that last December, Farai Chikuwa, a director of Waltrop (Pvt) Ltd, was awarded a contract by Liquid Telecommunications Holdings (Pvt) Limited in Zimbabwe for the supply of outdoor WiFi routers.
Chikuwa was supposed to import WiFi routers from Liquid Telecommunication Holdings in Mauritius.
According to the State, on December 8, Chikuwa engaged Ruwona, who allegedly undertook to settle the payment using his offshore foreign currency account.
On the same day, Chiweshe received US$630 400 from Aubrey Chademana and allegedly forwarded it to Ruwona to settle the bill.
Ruwona reportedly provided a fake proof of payment document claiming to have transferred the money from his account in Zambia to Liquid Telecommunications Mauritius’ Standard Bank.
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On January 20, 2023, Ruwona and Chiweshe again sent the complainant another fake proof of payment.
They did the same on February 3.
On February 15, they sent a proof of payment of US$426 420 and two days later, they sent a proof of payment of US$203 910.
On March 7, they successfully transferred US$280 332 and US$132 151,24 to Liquid Telecommunications Mauritius, but failed to account for the remaining US$218 249.
Using the same modus operandi, they allegedly defrauded Assess Finance of US$256 000 in a deal to import some fabric material.
Ruwona defeated ICT minister Jenfan Muswere in the recently held Zanu PF primaries in the race for the Makoni Central National Assembly seat.
He was later disqualified on grounds that his track record in Zanu PF was questionable.
