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Prosper Dembedza Court Correspondent
A 24-year-old Chitungwiza man has appeared in court on allegations of money laundering a total of US$120 000.

Malvin Kudakwashe Serima was facing money laundering charges when he appeared before Harare magistrate Mrs Yeukai Chigodora.

The State opposed bail.

However, the matter was deferred to tomorrow for bail ruling.

The court heard that the accused, acting in connivance with Talent Kamupupu and Paminous Mutengwa who are still at large, for the purposes of concealing the illicit money or assisting the person who was involved in the commission of a serious offence so that he or she evades the consequences of his or her acts, went to BancABC bank, Heritage branch at the corner of Samora Machel Avenue and First Street in Harare and opened two Visa prepaid account numbers.

It is alleged that the accused was then issued with the Visa debit cards linked to the two accounts whose cards he gave to Kamupupu and Mutengwa together with their personal identity or pin numbers.

The court heard that on October 23, accused’s two Visa accounts were fraudulently funded with a total of US$120 000 (US$10 000 into the first visa card and US$110 000 into the second visa card but the source of the funds is unknown.

It is the State’s case that on that same day, the two fraudulently acquired Visa cards were used in Ivory Coast where US$8395,99 was withdrawn from the first card whilst US$9529,42 from the second card.

Both transactions were ATM cash withdrawals, a trend that is synonymous with money laundering.

It is alleged that the offence was discovered on October 25 when BancABC risk department established that the two cards were among the list of Visa cards that had been flagged by Visa International for suspicious transactions.

The value involved is US$120 000 and US$102 074,59 is being held by Visa International through the suspension of the accounts.