Businessmen clandestinely acquire company owned by Bubi DA BY SILAS NKALA
THREE BUSINESSMEN have been arraigned before the court for allegedly defrauding a Bulawayo couple of a shelf company in which they allegedly clandestinely changed ownership to their names without the knowledge of the victims.
Martin Henry Deudney Simmons (53) of Jonsy Ranch Box 2 in West Nicholson, Tedious Tsumele Chauke (63) of the same address and Ettienne Hodson (29) of Hillside, Bulawayo, were not asked to plead to the fraud charge when they appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Charity Maphosa on Monday.
The magistrate remanded the matter to July 13 for commencement of trial.
Prosecutor Nkathazo Dlodlo told the court that on October 9 2008, Kathrin Khumalo and her husband – Bubi district administrator – Leornard Ncube bought a shelf company called Snail Flower Trading (Pvt) Ltd from Angela Dicks and Sharon Davidson.They registered it into their names and became the only two directors of the company.
During the month of November 2010, Khumalo’s sister Christine Sibanda approached Khumalo and her husband requesting to use their shelf company since she wanted to venture into gold mining business with two South African investors – namely Hodson and W L Ravenscroft.
They agreed to give Sibanda their shelf company.
During January 2011, Hodson and his friends Ravenscroft were arrested and deported back to South Africa.
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It was during same time that Sibanda went to the Deeds and Companies Offices in Bulawayo to check company documents of Snail Flower Trading (Pvt) Ltd.
She discovered that the original company record 14 which had Khumalo and Ncube as the only two directors had been changed to Simmons and Chauke.
Sibanda advised Khumalo and Ncube about the changes and the two indicated that they had not sold the company to anyone and did not know Simmons and Chauke.
On May 29 2015 the matter was reported to the police, leading to the arrest of Simmons and Chauke. Investigations proved that Simmons and Chauke facilitated a fraudulent transfer of the company name.
The two had not bought the company, but just changed its name into their own. The process prejudiced the owners of $450 which has not been recovered.
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