Ex (Zimra) officer Nyatoti US$150 000 mansion and US$10 000 car forfeited to the State after he and his divorced wife failed to explain how they could afford these property.

FORMER ZIMBABWE REVENUE (Zimra) officer Kennedy Nyatoti is the first person to lose assets under Zimbabwe’s civil-based asset forfeiture law after his US$150 000 mansion and US$10 000 car were forfeited to the State after he and his divorced wife failed to explain how they could afford these property.
www,newzimbabwevision.com, says this is evidence of how millions of unaccounted wealth mostly from the proceeds of crime in Zimbabwe, the diaspora, tax evasion and tax avoidance, that has been amassed by people will be hunted and forfeited to the state. The key targets initially will be the evident, public figures who shamelessly flaunted their millions while the nation was collapsing due to their ill gotten wealth,….INTERESTING!
Mr Nyatoti’s lawful income between October 2014 and May 2018 was US$44 907, and it was established that he neither had private income nor was he running a private business. So he failed to explain how he managed to build the US$150 000 mansion in Mabvazuva suburb in Harare and buy a Honda CRV valued at US$10 000.
Zimra’s lifestyle audit team discovered the mansion and car, after perusing the claims made during the divorce proceedings between Mr Nyatoti and his wife.
Investigations established Mr Nyatoti never ran a legitimate business during the period in question, neither did he prove any payment of income tax regarding the funds needed to build the house.
A court application was made for civil forfeiture in terms of the amended Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act and the High Court ordered forfeiture of the mansion and the car.
Previously, the State could only apply for forfeiture after a conviction for a corruption-related offence.
However, the new law now allows the State to apply for forfeiture under civil rules even without instituting criminal proceedings.
The main difference is that in civil cases a party only has to make a case on the balance of probabilities, but in a criminal case the rule is proof beyond reasonable doubt. So even if corruption was probable, but not proved, under the old rules the person kept the assets. Under the new law they can lose these.
If one fails to justify his or her wealth as required by law, the State can successfully forfeit the unexplained wealth.
Prosecutor General Mr Kumbirai Hodzi hailed the court’s decision saying processes were now underway to transfer ownership of the house and the car to the State.
Mr Hodzi said the new civil forfeiture law was a more effective in recovering funds lost through corruption or fraud.
Mr Nyatoti’s woes mounted when he parted ways with his wife. The divorce proceedings exposed Mr Nyatoti as someone living an expensive lifestyle well beyond his earnings.
Both Mr Nyatoti and his wife, Ms Tatenda Chisadza, were taken to court after failing to explain how they managed to build the property in Harare’s Mabvazuva suburb when his earnings during the period under review only amounted to US$44 900.Investigations by Zimra also revealed that besides constructing a luxurious house, Mr Nyatoti allegedly paid lobola amounting to US$10 000 in 2016 before taking his family on a trip to China at a cost of US$15 000 in November 2017.
Principal Public Prosecutor Mr Kelvin Mufute said he was satisfied that the couple’s identified property constitutes proceeds of crime and was, therefore, tainted.
Mr Mufute further said Mr Nyatoti acquired a Honda CRV valued at US$6 000 which he registered under Ms Chisadza’s name, a Nissan Skyline valued at US$4 000 for his sister, built a house worth US$150 000 in Mabvazuva, Harare, and bought a Honda Fit registered under his mother’s name.
The court agreed that the assets could not have been acquired under the known income of the couple.
Buttressing the State’s case, Zimra’s loss control officer Mr Blessing Majoni submitted that his investigations had established that Nyatoti abused his office and obtained the funds through corrupt means, adding he even tried to hide behind his sister, Portia, in a bid to justify how he acquired his wealth.
But Portia could not have had the money either. Mr Majoni said Nyatoti lied about the amounts spent on vehicle imports, which was later verified by Zimra. Nyatoti allegedly also claimed that his sister had provided US$100 000 towards construction of the Mabvazuva house, but it later turned out that Portia was a mere receptionist and did not have that sort of money. Herald

ZANU PF POLITICAL RE-EDUCATION-Advocate Thabani Mpofu has been detained overnight at the Rhodesville Police station in Harare after being charged with a crime of perjury.
Top Harare lawyer Advocate Thabani Mpofu was charged with defeating or obstructing the course of justice on Monday, accused of filing a court application last year bolstered by an affidavit by someone who “does not exist.”
Mpofu attended a police station by appointment on Monday after police twice raided his homes, his lawyer said.
He arrived at the police Anti-Corruption Unit at Morris Depot accompanied by his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa.
The police charges, a copy of which was seen by ZimLive, accused Mpofu of conspiring with one Makanza and Choice Damiso, a commissioner of oaths, to draft an affidavit in the name of one Simbarashe Zuze which was then filed at the Constitutional Court in January last year in a case challenging the appointment of Kumbirai Hodzi as Prosecutor General.
Police said the trio did this “well knowing that Simbarashe Zuze does not exist.”
The case was struck off the roll in February, a month later, after court officials said it had been “deemed abandoned in terms of Section 9 (6) of the rules of this court.”
The abandonment of the case was, however, not before the secretary of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) secretary Walter Chikwana filed the JSC’s response in which he stated: “There is no proof on record that the applicant is an adult, let alone a Zimbabwean citizen.
“The applicant is put to the strictest proof of these issues and he should provide a copy of his national identity card.
“Without establishing that he is an adult Zimbabwean, the applicant has no locus standi to approach the court in the present proceedings and the application should fail on this basis alone.”
The Hodzi appointment challenge was revived in a different application in February 2019 by Harare lawyer Joshua Chirambwe, who was again represented by Mpofu.
The matter was argued in October last year and judgement is pending.
Mpofu famously represented MDC leader Nelson Chamisa in his unsuccessful bid to overturn the results of the 2018 presidential elections.
The MDC on Monday said Mpofu was being “persecuted”.
“Advocate Mpofu is the latest in a series of state-sponsored attacks against the pillars of our party and the democratic struggle in Zimbabwe,” MDC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said in a statement.
She added: “The persecution of Advocate Mpofu comes shortly after the abduction, torture and sexual assault of three of our female members who were enforcedly disappeared a fortnight ago.
“This incessant and coordinated assault on our party and its affiliates, the procedural recall of our Members of Parliament and the attempt to use state institutions to dismember the democratic movement will not stop us from pursuing the agenda of change.”
The lawyer was expected to appear in court on Tuesday.
However an update to the original matter is that
MDC lawyer, Thabani Mpofu will spend another night locked up at Rhodesville Police Station cells after police failed to bring him to court Tuesday but went on to file fresh charges against him.
The Harare legal practitioner, who almost struck celebrity status when he represented MDC Alliance President Nelson Chamisa in the latter’s 2018 election challenge, was arrested Monday by officers from the Central Intelligence Department’s (CID) Anti-Corruption Unit.
He was charged with defeating or obstructing the course of justice.
This is after he allegedly drafted an affidavit for a non-existent client, one Simbarashe Zuze.
It is further alleged Mpofu connived with a Joshua Chirambwe in the filing of a Constitutional Court challenge containing duplicated information from Zuze’s matter, thus defeating the course of justice.
The State had promised to bring him to court Tuesday but according to his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, they failed to do so but went on to add a new charge against the prominent advocate.
“They added a third charge that he connived with another lawyer to take a client from another firm, Samkange and Venturas legal practitioners and share the fees,” said Mtetwa.
Meanwhile, the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) has said it had learnt with “profound concern of the arrest and detention” of Mpofu.
“It is not clear why Advocate Mpofu has been singled out for arrest in a case where the charges allege connivance with other legal practitioners. It is equally not clear why a specialised unit dealing with corruption cases has been deployed to deal with this ordinary criminal case. It is also unclear why the police are only acting now more than a year after the alleged offence was committed,” the LSZ said.
“As a result of the foregoing, the Law Society of Zimbabwe is anxious and concerned with the motive behind the arrest and detention. The Society recognises and stands by the principle that a lawyer must never be associated with the cause of his client.”
Source – newzimbabwe- zimlivehttp://newzimbabwevision.com/zanu-pf-political-re-education-advocate-thabani-mpofu-has-been-detained-overnight-at-the-rhodesville-police-stn-in-harare-after-being-charged-with-a-crime-of-perjury/

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