Minister of Finance
Ministry of Finance
New Government Complex
P.O. Box 7705
Harare
Zimbabwe,
15 August 2009
Dear Hon Minister Tendai Biti
RE ; GILBERT MUPONDA and ENG CAPITAL (PVT) LTD RETURN OF SEIZED ASSETS
Hon Minister Biti this is an appeal to your esteemed office for your intervention in the return of wrongfully seized personal assets and those of ENG Capital - a legally incorporated company under Zimbabwe's Constitution and the Company Act.
1 - My name is Gilbert Muponda , I am a Zimbabwean born Entrepreneur currently living in exile in Toronto, Canada. I am a founder and shareholder of ENG Capital (PVT) LTD . You may have never heard of me so I will give you some brief back ground .I was the first person arrested in the 2003-2004 so-called anti graft campaign by Gideon Gono immediately after he took over at the RBZ on fabricated charges and allegations. These allegations were a smokescreen created to allow the grabbing of my assets and those owned by my Company ENG Capital (PVT) LTD. In the process of being dispossessed on my assets and ENG assets I was arrested, abused, beaten, harassed, tortured, denied food, medicine, water and sleep all in an effort to get me to confess to false charges whilst my assets were being stripped from me. In addition I was forced to sleep with dead bodies and share blankets with people suffering from infectious diseases as a way to weaken my resolve and coerce me to surrender my fight to protect my Company and my assets. It is only natural justice that assets seized under such conditions be returned or compensation be paid and those responsible held accountable.
I was specified without being accorded an opportunity to defend myself or present my side of the facts. The constitution of Zimbabwe is clear that before anyone is specified that individual must be accorded a hearing wherein they can present relevant facts. This did not happen which was deliberately done to strip me of my Company and personal assets.
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 impression of a Bankrupt Institution. It must be noted First Mutual Life and National Discount House being ENG counter parties in fact sued Zimbank for irregularly dishonoring ENG cheques at a time 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.
2 - The purpose of my letter is to seek your assistance in recovery of ENG assets which were unjustly Taken over by certain individuals. Specifically I am seeking your attention on the possible return of Century Bank /CFX Bank to ENG Capital and its Shareholders and Contributories. This is an ownership dispute which may have far repercussions as Zimbabwe tries to repair its image as an Investor friendly destination. Since the formation of the GNU it has given hope that a sense of Justice can be done or seen to be done on individuals who were illegally and irregularly disposed of their assets.
I would like Century Bank/CFX Bank returned to me or to be fairly compensated for the controlling stake that was snatched from ENG. By way of copy of this letter I also seek to engage CFX BANK shareholders and Management on how my claim can be amicably be resolved.
3 - I am writing to you as Minister responsible for both the Reserve Bank ,Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and the Financial sector regulation. The Financial sector is on recovery path and the particular Institution is also on recovery path and as such its important that the dispute be resolved amicably.
4 - The Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) through its central bank, The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), by way of instruction from its governor, Dr Gideon Gono, seized and forfeited my personal assets and those of my company ENG, without due process.
5 - I am seeking the return of my Primary residence and home at number 17 Chishawasha road, Chishawasha Hills, Umwinsdale. Harare. This was my personal Property, only home and Primary residence which was seized and sold without due process and was against all natural justice as it left me homeless.
6 - The seizure occurred when government took away my personal property and sold it, while the forfeiture occurred when legal title to my property was permanently transferred to the state.
7 - Dr Gideon Gono, the RBZ, the GoZ (through the AG’s office), police, and prosecutors, possess the power to seize any assets on the slightest pretext, whilst abusing the existing seizure law.
8 - Honorable Minister, justice requires that the Ministry of Finance lift the corporate veil of CFX Holding and Century Bank and peer under the skirts of those companies to determine the extent of the ENG asset theft that occurred. And follow the track of various changes of ownership of that Bank over the last 5 years.
9 - ENG, a company incorporated under Zimbabwean law, is a juristic person, a bearer of rights and duties that is not a natural person, but which is given legal personality by the law. An incorporated company is recognized by law as a separate legal entity, distinct from the separate personalities of the members of the body. The law should treat ENG like any other independent person having rights and liabilities. A company, as a legal person, may enter into contracts, own property, ENG owned a material amount of valuable assets despite the media campaign which tried to portray ENG as a pyramid scheme which only owned vehicles.ENG owned Century BANK which was subsequently renamed CFX Bank.
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 impression of a Bankrupt Institution. It must be noted First Mutual Life and National Discount House being ENG counter parties in fact sued Zimbank for irregularly dishonoring ENG cheques at a time 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.
10 - 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
11- 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 the governor financial freedom.
12 - 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.
13 - All facts indicate to a grand miscarriage of Justice.
14 - 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. This Honorable Minister is not how we expect justice to carried out in country a country seeking to re-establish itself as an attractive investment destination.
15 - As a detailed background in April 2003 ENG Capital Investments acquired Century Discount Holdings from Century Financial Holdings ( A ZSE listed Financial Holdings Firm).The purchase price was Z$1.5 billion then equivalent to US$ 3 million. The purchase price was paid in full. ENG then applied to the Registrar of Banks and Financial Institutions for the change of controlling shareholder approval which approvals were denied.
16 - After several attempts to get the underlying reasons for the denial I was informed that " the Authorities" were not comfortable with ENG political inclination which they said remained "unclear" in addition issue of the ENG Directors age was raised. We then tried to find out if Century Financial Holdings was in a position to refund ENG for the purchase price and to reverse the Century Discount House purchase. Century Holdings was not in a position to refund ENG.
17 - The only recourse was that ENG had to acquire Century Financial Holdings to mitigate any potential loss of outlay on the Century Discount house acquisition. As such ENG and its associated Companies acquired a total of 52% of Century Financial Holdings making Century and ENG subsidiary.
18 - After my arrest on fabricated charges ENG was placed into Provisional Liquidation as a way to secure the creditors. The creditors agreed to take shares held by ENG IN lieu of payment. As such the contributories, directors and lawyers and creditors agreed the shares should not be sold whilst a fair valuation was being negotiated. However we were shocked to read in the papers that a parcel of 309,000,000 Century shares belonging to ENG had been sold through a pre-fixed special bargain transaction on or about 12 May 2004. The beneficiary to this transaction have remained a mystery even though we have reliable information as to the probable ultimate beneficiaries.
19 - Within a week of this sell of shares it was announced that Century Bank will now be merged with CFX Bank and the new Bank will be called CFX Bank. It is clear the merger was a laundering transaction meant to hide and sanitize the illegal and irregular transfer of the shares owned by ENG.The name Century was immediately removed and the new entity rebranded CFX Bank despite the fact that Century Bank provided a majority of the assets and infrastructure of the new Bank.
20 - The so-called merger was only arranged to hide the true nature of the illegality of the transfer of ENG shares in Century. It is clear that without the illegal and irregular share transfer the merger would not have happened and would not have made any sense ,it was therefore just done to cover the tracks of the asset grab that had taken place
21 - Through our Lawyers Ziweni and Company we sought the identity of the buyer and also to clarify that the share sell was null and void as it had all whole marks of corruption, insider dealing and was being challenged by the beneficial owners of the shares. In addition the shares had been sold through a special bargain and not an open market transparent transaction. The shares were sold for an unrealistic amount of Z$ 3 billion when ENG had acquired the same shares for at least Z$35 billion. This resulted in the prejudice of Z$ 32 billion to ENG Creditors and Contributories/Shareholders. As such ENG contributories were not fairly and justly paid for the value of the shares held by ENG. Its this discrepancy that I want resolved and close the matter so that the Institution and My self can each focus on our future without any litigation or dispute lingering on.
22 - We also asked the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange to investigate and stop the share transfer. However due to the general prevailing atmosphere and fear to challenge "authorities " no one was willing to assist us to stop or challenge this illegal and irregular transfer of the shares to an " unidentified" buyer believed to be a group of senior political figures. In this instance the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange did not act properly and prudently in defending and safeguarding shareholder interests. Given that we had raised a legitimate concern the share transfer should not have been permitted.
23 - As a way forward I propose that Century Bank /CFX Bank and other ENG Assets be returned to ENG Shareholders/ Contributories or a fair compensation be worked out and paid out to the ENG Shareholders and Contributories to settle the dispute. I further request your assistance on the return the return of my Primary residence 17 Chishawasha Road,Chishawasha Hills,Umwinsdale. Harare. This illegal seizure left me destitute and homeless.
For the sake of transparency I am copying this letter to the following ;
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor - Dr Gono
Minister of Justice - Hon Patrick Chinamasa
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange CEO - Mr Emmanuel Munyukwi
CFX BANK Board of Directors
As indicated above I hope we can quickly come to conclusion on the matter as a pro-longed dispute may not be in anyone’s interest.
Yours Faithfully,
Gilbert Muponda
1-416-841-5542
1-647-994-5542
Email - gilbert@gilbertmuponda.com
Skype ID - gilbert.muponda
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