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Court Correspondent

A 24-year-old Chitungwiza man recently appeared in court on allegations of money laundering US$120 000.

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

The court heard that the accused acting in connivance with Talent Kamupupu and Paminous Mutengwa who are still at large, went to BancABC Bank, Heritage branch along Samora Machel Avenue and opened two Visa prepaid accounts.

It is alleged that the accused was then issued with the Visa debit cards linked to the two accounts which 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 and 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case that on that same day, the two fraudulently acquired Visa cards were used in Cote d’Ivoire where US$8 395,99 was withdrawn from the first card whilst US$9 529,42 from the second card.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 held by Visa International through the suspension of the accounts.