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Court Reporter

BUSINESSMAN Adam James Hartnack, who owns Adamair (Pvt) Limited and Mr Bristle, a manufacturing firm located in Msasa, Harare, was yesterday arrested by the Special Anti-Corruption Unit (SACU) on allegations of duping the Meteorological Services Department (MSD) of over US$70 000 meant for national cloud seeding in Bulawayo and Matabeleland North provinces.

Hartnack was detained at Rhodesville Police Station in Harare and is expected to be charged with three counts of fraud.

Head of SACU, Mr Thabani Mpofu, confirmed the arrest.

“It is true that he provided wrong information to Government and criminal charges will be preferred against him.

“Government will approach the High Court to pursue civil charges to recover the embezzled money while prosecution process will also take place,” said Mr Mpofu.

Accusations facing the businessman are that he misrepresented to the MSD, through a flight analysis schedule for the 2018/19 cloud seeding season that there were two aircraft on standby.

He allegedly lied that the two aircraft were in Harare and Bulawayo and were ready to undertake the cloud seeding project during the 2018/19 season when there was only one aircraft available, while the other was out of the country for maintenance.