Gono must be accountable for Banking sector destruction

Prominent Banker, businessman and former president of the Association of Building Societies of Zimbabwe Nicholas Vingirai was scandalized ,criminalized whilst his business empire was parceled by Gono and other ZANU PF cronies. Mr Vingirayi is an experienced banker and entrepreneur whose experience is needed in rebuilding Zimbabwe’s shattered Economy.He is one Zimbabwean with required expertise and experience to be at the helm of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Vingirai is one of the first successful indigenous bankers to set up a solid and successful banking enterprise. Mr Vingirai was the founder and major shareholder of Intermarket Financial Holdings which he owned through his investment vehicle called Transnational Holdings.

Intermarket Financial Holdings operated several leading brands in offering financial services. The subsidiaries included the following ;

Intermarket Banking Corporation
Intermarket Securities
Intermarket Discount House
Intermarket Nominees
Intermarket Building Society - Formerly Founders Building Society
Intermarket Life Assurance - Formerly Southampton Life Assurance
Beverly Building Society
Mashonaland Property Holdings

These various leading brands were taken over and parceled out to various politically connected individuals and entities. Specifically Intermarket Banking corporation was taken over by the Government owned ZB Holdings’ Holdings (ZIMBANK) which has obviously found itself on the sanctions list because it has been hijacked by ZANU PF and is now being used a money laundering shop. Beverly was taken over by CBZ Holdings which is closely linked to Gideon Gono.All these asset takeovers were not done transparently and were done at the expense of the visionary founders who exhibited entrepreneurial flair which is desperately needed in Zimbabwe.

It is important to note whilst Gono claims to be the man behind the revival and turning around of CBZ this is just stroking is ego. Gono was working under the instruction of Nicholas Vingirai who at that time was the Chairman of CBZ Holdings were he acted in executive capacity developing ,structuring and executing the turn around of CBZ Holdings with Gono acting as glorified front man. Once the turn around was successful Mr Vingirai then left to focus on his Intermarket Financial Holdings which he grew to be within the top 3 biggest Financial Groups in Zimbabwe by 2003. It is unfortunate that Gono not only proceeded to victimize ,criminalize and scandalize Mr Vingirayi.He has sought to paint himself the chief architect of the CBZ turn around when in fact he was just a front man executing strategies formulated by Mr Vingirayi.

This is very clear that Gono left to his own abilities he is a disaster as proven on how he single handedly destroyed the Zimbabwe dollar along with the Zimbabwe Economy. It is man like Mr Vingirayi who should be heading the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe because of their proven record in formulating effective strategies and building successful businesses.

Gono has presided over total destruction of the Financial sector in particular and the Economy in general by haunting out talented individuals like Dr Mthuli Ncube the founder of Barbican Bank and Financial Holdings and Mr Nicholas Vingirai.Under Gono the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange has been degraded to the ZANU Stock Exchange (ZSE) and the Reserve Bank has been down graded into a mafia petty cash box better described as the Reserve Bank of ZANU PF (RBZ).




It is important that Gono has ruined many businesses and only a few of the affected business people have directly taken required aggressive action to condemn, criticize and expose Gono for what he is - a Kleptomaniac masquerading as Reserve Bank Governor. "If you have a problem with someone, you have to go after them. Its not necessarily to teach that person a lesson, it's to teach all the people that are watching that you don't take crap. If you take a lot of nonsense, you can't make it"- these are inspiring and sobering words from American business man Donald Trump. These are particularly relevant words on recent past events in Zimbabwe where Gideon Gono led asset seizures from independent business people in the name of fighting corruption whilst embarking on an self enrichment scheme yet to be matched in Zimbabwe's history.


It is clear that Trump’s words are relevant in as much as if all the scandalized and criminalized business people had taken time to plan ,co-ordinate and take decisive action against Gono and show that they wont take crap or accept nonsense from Gono in terms of arbitrarily arrests and asset grabbing and business destruction. This lesson should be clear to all who seek to enter business especially in the Zimbabwean market. There is need to take action when property and human rights are being stepped on especially by people like Gono who presented themselves as Messiahs.

This article appears courtsey of GMRI CAPITAL – www.gmricapital.com . It is original content generated for 3MG MEDIA.

Gilbert Muponda is a Founder of GMRI CAPITAL . He can be reached at; www.ZimFace.com and www.facebook.com/home.php#/muponda?ref=name

Email: gilbert@gilbertmuponda.com . Skype ID: gilbert.Muponda

Twitter ; http://twitter.com/gmricapital

Phone: 1-416-841-5542

Muponda in bid to Block CFX Bank Zimbabwe Takeover

THE wrangle over the ownership of CFX Financial Services Ltd has taken a new twist with exiled businessman Gilbert Muponda seeking to block an extraordinary general meeting that can seal the takeover of the troubled financial institution by a Zambian bank. Muponda, through his lawyers Gutu & Chikowero Attorneys-at-law on Monday wrote to CFX company secretary Patricia Ndoro threatening to take legal action against the company if it proceeds with the shareholders meeting on November 12.

CFX, which is currently facing viability problems, reportedly needs a capital injection to meet minimum capital requirements set by the Reserve Bank. The extraordinary general meeting, according to a cautionary statement issued by CFX early this month, would raise share capital by increasing ordinary authorized shares.The dispute was triggered by the special bargain sale of 309,000,000 shares on 12 May 2004 but the total shares claimed by Mr Muponda 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.


“It is of course apparent that our client will suffer irreparable financial prejudice in the event that the extraordinary general meeting scheduled for November 12 goes ahead before the matter pertaining to the proprietary interest of ENG Capital (Pvt) Ltd is not resolved to the satisfaction of all interested stakeholders,” reads the letter.

“To this extent, therefore, we call upon your office to furnish us with your company’s attitude to our client’s claim; more particularly pertaining to its proprietary interest in the majority shareholding of CFX Financial Services Ltd. We also call upon your company to take immediate measures to postpone the extraordinary general sine die pending the resolution of our client’s claim.”

This development comes barely a month after CFX sought legal opinion from Kantor & Immerman Legal Practitioners over Mr Muponda’s claims that ENG –– which had a substantial stake in Century, predecessor CFX — should stop Zambia’s Finance Bank from the planned takeover of the beleaguered financial institution.

Muponda in correspondence written to Finance Bank in August claimed that he lost Century Bank shares after they were “fraudulently” converted into CFX following Century’s closure.

“In terms of the Prevention of Corruption Act, in particularly Section 10 thereof, Mr Muponda is not able to conduct any material transactions on his own behalf or in respect of any companies that he has invested in or does not enjoy legal standing to institute any legal claim either on his behalf or on behalf of companies in which he may have held shares,” argued CFX lawyers in a letter dated September 17.

CFX Bank was formed after a merger between CFX Financial Services (CFX) and Century Holdings Ltd in 2004.

The bank was placed under the management of a curator in December 2004 following a banking crisis triggered by a liquidity crunch that resulted in the collapse of at least 15 financial institutions in the country. The curatorship was later lifted by the central bank.

KMAL Drama exposes ZSE double standards

ECONET Wireless was reported to have sold its shareholding in suspended and partially specified Kingdom Meikles Africa Limited (KMAL). In a statement , the company said it had sold its 24,537,480 shares in KMAL at $0,71 per share. The shares were sold to Loakcape Investments (PVT) Ltd a consortium of business people with diverse backgrounds. These are types of deals why the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) is variously described as a lawless jungle.

This deal whilst details are sketchy casts a shadow on how the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange has lost credibility and control of share trading and how the ZSE is now behaving like a cartel which has been hired or borrowed. Firstly the Company was suspended on the Stock Exchange. Therefore shares cant and shouldn’t trade.Period.Otherwise what’s the point of suspending a Company and then let the shares trade? Selective application of the rules is clearly evident here.

When shares are suspended the net effect if to protect every shareholder until the situation is clear. This allows minorities to consult and get proper advice on what to do with their shares. As usual the major players would bend the rules and take advantage of the situation.

The second aspect relates to trading shares of a specified entity. According to Zimbabwean law if someone or an entity is specified it means all legal rights to act as an independent party are lost. If it’s a Company it almost means loss of economic value. This explains why Meikles value evaporated by an astonishing US$ 410 million from US$ 500 million to US $ million.

The selling price represents a premium of 29% on KMAL’s closing price of $0.55 before its suspension from the ZSE. It is clear the other minority shareholders did not get an equal opportunity to exit at such a hefty premium. It is common knowledge that all the major players in the KMAL drama managed to salvage their positions but the minority shareholders were not afforded an opportunity to exit at 29% premium. This is where the suspension was supposed to be upheld by the Zimbabwe Stock exchange. As usual the ZSE failed to even raise a voice trying to seek clarification or to alley public concerns about how shares can change hands when the Company is specified and suspended. The question has then to be asked if the ZSE has different rules for different players in the same game on the same playing field.

A closer analysis indicates that this deal was not sanctioned by the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. How else can they sanction a deal on shares of a suspended Company? This then leads to the next point .This was an “off market deal”. These are irregular deals in publicly listed companies which are meant to circumvent the Stock exchange rules.

The off market deals are not allowed for various reasons these include tax evasion possibility and the illegal use of a listed Company for unintended purpose. This means Companies which are listed must be traded in the open and transparently with a clear public record. In this case this did not happen. And the ZSE reputation is further dragged into the mud just because the ZSE continue to be used in a manner that’s not fair nor transparent.

The boardroom spat has seen the value of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed company drop from US$500 million last year to US$90 million. This represents serious value destruction which was mostly borne by minority shareholders whilst the main actors of the drama will most likely live to fight another day and recover their paper losses.

The biggest problem is how the ZSE has shown itself to be a toothless bulldog and aided and abetted asset looting instead of protecting investors of publicly listed Companies. Three very similar cases would best clarify this point. This is the three M’s case study. Moxon,Mawere and Muponda.The basics are the same with the state alleging various fabricated economic crimes against the Company owners. These allegations are followed by the owners being haunted out of the country plus specification. The assets are ear marked by those well connected and in no time at all the assets change hands under the most dramatic of conditions which any stock exchange should do all it can to investigate, probe and possible refuse to approve.

It is clear that had the ZSE acted decisively when SMM and related companies were being snatched from Mutumwa D.Mawere then Moxon and other KMAL shareholders could have been saved of this drama which resulted in loss of at least US$410. Similarly when Century/ CFX Bank was being snatched from Muponda and ENG Capital the ZSE could have sent a clear signal by suspending and penalizing Century/CFX Bank. It is precedents like these which only save to scare away investors .This is now becoming ZSE in particular and Zimbabwe in general’s culture that entrepreneurs are arrested,specified,harassed and exiled whilst their businesses and assets are taken over without the ZSE playing its proper role as regulator and enforcer to encourage transparency and greater investment on the Stock Exchange.


This article appears courtsey of GMRI CAPITAL – www.gmricapital.com.It is original content generated for 3MG MEDIA.

Gilbert Muponda is a Founder of GMRI CAPITAL . He can be reached at; www.ZimFace.com and www.facebook.com/home.php#/muponda?ref=name

Email: gilbert@gilbertmuponda.com . Skype ID: gilbert.Muponda

Twitter ; http://twitter.com/gmricapital

Phone: 1-416-841-5542

Nestle bank accounts frozen over Grace farm milk snub

By Lance Guma
09 October 2009
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono has confirmed his long held status as Mugabe’s blue-eyed boy, by freezing the bank accounts of Nestle Zimbabwe, a week after the dairy firm stopped buying milk from Grace Mugabe. Following pressure from human rights groups Nestle announced it would stop buying milk from Gushungo Dairy Estate, which was controversially acquired by Grace along with 6 other farms. A report in the weekly Zimbabwe Independent newspaper quotes Gono confirming the RBZ had ordered a forensic audit into Nestlé’s dealings.

‘There were two or so transactions which were made which we thought
were irregular’ Gono told the paper. ‘These have been explained and things are back to normal. We have to be on the look out for any irregular transactions.’ He denied the probe had anything to do with Nestlé’s decision to stop buying milk from Grace Mugabe’s farm. The paper spoke to sources at Nestle who said ‘two of their five banks had confirmed receiving directives from the central bank to freeze the accounts pending forensic audits.’

Despite Gono’s denial they were victimizing the company, the Zimbabwe Independent quotes sources who say a senior government official phoned Nestle on Monday and told them the decision to stop buying from Grace’s farm was an extension of European Union and United States sanctions on the Mugabe’s.

Exiled businessman Gilbert Muponda berated Nestle Zimbabwe for doing business with the Mugabe’s in the first place. He said they ‘owe us an apology for aiding and abetting this regime.’ He likened Nestlé’s behaviour to his own situation, where he claims one of the worlds biggest banks, Credit Suisse, through the Finance Bank of Zambia, is currently trying to buy CFX bank (formerly Century Bank), a company he says was ‘looted’ from him by Gono and company. ‘I was put in jail, denied food, criminalised and tortured just so they could take my company and now you have a reputable international bank trying to buy it,’ he fumed.

Muponda says the freezing of Nestlé’s account was just a ‘warning signal’ being given to the company to remind them that if they wanted to do business in Zimbabwe they had to trade with those in power. He said they were probably ‘many behind-the-scenes maneuvers now going on involving CIO’s and others, trying to build a case against Nestle.’

CFX Bank dispute banners finally ready

Banner ads have been created and will apear on selected websites and newspapers to document how Century/CFX Bank was looted from me and ENG.Below is the first set of the banners.

As Contributories in our effort to recover at least 309 000 000 (million) and up to 900,000,000 (Nine hundred Million), Century Bank shares fraudulently converted into CFX Bank shares a decision has been made to create an archive and necessary records to trace and track our Bank. The fraud was masked as a merger between Century Bank and CFX Bank but after the merger Century name was dropped to cover the tracks of the fraud.

The dispute was triggered by the special bargain sale of 309,000,000 shares on 12 May 2004 but the total shares owned by our Company were 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 from me and my Company ENG.

Various transactions and Company re-organization schemes with the ultimate aim of sanitizing asset looting and illegal expropriation of our Assets. The current proposed recapitalization exercise must be viewed in the same light as it now seeks to sell our illegally transferred shares into hands of another foreign Bank which will further hide the tracks of the illegal transaction. This must be documented and stopped.

The Senior Management and Directors of CFX are co-conspirators in an elaborate scheme to defraud ENG Capital and its shareholders and contributories. They have falsely and fraudulently with others known and unknown, unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to commit offenses against ENG Capital to commit fraud in connection with the purchase, sale and transfer of the 309,000,000 Century Holdings Ordinary shares which were used to convert the Bank into CFX Bank.

The directors of Century/ CFX provided false and misleading information to CFX’s regulators, Zimbabwe investing public ,auditors and concealed from them their falsification of Century/ CFXs books and records, and manipulation of data recorded in CFXs general ledger and subsidiary ledgers. Making and causing CFX to make untrue statements of material facts and omitting to state material facts necessary in order to make the statements made. This was all done in an effort to hide the tracks of ENG Capital's controlling stake 309 million shares in Century/CFX Bank.It appears Finance Bank Zambia assisted by Credit Suisse have decided to enter the fray and assist in money and transaction laundering.This must be documented as this claim will last as long as the Bank or its assets are under use even after any rebranding and renaming efforts.


This is an ongoing dispute.I have created a website blog to document and clarify issues.The website address is http://cfxbank.blogspot.com/

Gilbert Muponda is a Founder of GMRI CAPITAL . He can be reached at; www.ZimFace.com

CFX Bank dispute gets a website

As we continue to document the CFX Bank ownership dispute it has become clear that the current CFX Management and Board of Directors intend to further hide the fraud that was committed by the illegal and irregular transfer of 309 million Century/CFX Bank shares.A website blog has been created to fully document this matter as it develops.The address is http://cfxbank.blogspot.com. It is clear they are trying to hide and conceal the illegal actions of some current Senior Managers,past senior managers ,past Board of Directors all acting in concert with the RBZ Governor to snatch Century/CFX Bank from me and my Company ENG Capital.It is there fore necessary to step up the documentation and ensure all facts are in public domain.

Those currently investing or trying to buy CFX Bank must do so with full knowledge that they are buying stolen property.Any attempt to re-brand or rename the resultant bank will be fully documented.CFX Bank has remained weak and undercapitalised due to the fact that most Market partcicpants in Zimbabwe are fully aware that it is a looted asset.This has brought instability to CFX Bank which has seen the Bank have at least 5 Chief Executive officers in a 2 year period.This reflects the underlying ownership dispute.And as long as this remains the bank will remain on shaky ground.

Various transactions and Company re-organization schemes with the ultimate aim of sanitizing asset looting and illegal expropriation of our Assets. The current proposed recapitalization exercise must be viewed in the same light as it now seeks to sell our illegally transferred shares into hands of another foreign Bank which will further hide the tracks of the illegal transaction. This must be documented and stopped.

The Senior Management and Directors of CFX are co-conspirators in an elaborate scheme to defraud ENG Capital and its shareholders and contributories. They have falsely and fraudulently with others known and unknown, unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to commit offenses against ENG Capital to commit fraud in connection with the purchase, sale and transfer of the 309,000,000 Century Holdings Ordinary shares.

The directors of Century/ CFX provided false and misleading information to CFX’s regulators, Zimbabwe investing public ,auditors and concealed from them their falsification of Century/ CFXs books and records, and manipulation of data recorded in CFXs general ledger and subsidiary ledgers. Making and causing CFX to make untrue statements of material facts and omitting to state material facts necessary in order to make the statements made. This was all done in an effort to hide the tracks of ENG Capital's controlling stake shares in Century/CFX Bank.It appears Finance Bank Zambia assisted by Credit Suisse have decided to enter the fray and assist in money and transaction laundering.This must be documented.


This is an ongoing dispute.I have created a website blog to document and clarify issues.The website address is http://cfxbank.blogspot.com/

Gilbert Muponda is a Founder of GMRI CAPITAL . He can be reached at; www.ZimFace.com

Email: gilbert@gilbertmuponda.com . Skype ID: gilbert.Muponda

Twitter ; http://twitter.com/gmricapital

Phone: 1-416-841-5542