HARARE (Reuters) – prosecutors on Thursday announced that about $20 million found under a mattress in a Avondale apartment had been seized after an RBZ employee was arrested for laundering money linked to a multi-billion-dollar fraud in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Prosecutors in Harare charged the man a son of a senior Cabinet minister Richard Nzou, 28, with numerous counts of Theft, fraud and corruption.
Nzou was detained following a court hearing, prosecutors said. His lawyer Messers Chamutsa did not immediately respond to a request for comment, only stating that they will be approaching the Harare High Court for bail.
The arrest stemmed from an investigation into why banks and Ecocash, Telecash and Onewallet where always saying they had no cash.
Prosecutors said this arrest occurred at a time when the ordinary Zimbabwean was fearing that the introduction of the Bond notes was a means by some powerful and influential people wanted to mop up all the USA dollars into their coffers.
Prosecutors say Nzou was remanded to 2 February 2017 as he is co operating with the police and more big wig arrests are going to take place.
Sources say that the RBZ governor welcomed the arrest saying its about time certain individuals realised that government efforts should not be pigbacked in order to enrich oneself at the expense of the honest hardworking public.
On Dec. 31, Nzou, acting as a courier for the Cabinet ministers nephew, flew to the United States of America and subsequently on returning to Harare met on Wednesday with the cooperating witness, whom he gave $2.2 million in a suitcase, at Avondale shopping center, according to the State papers.
After the meeting, the police followed Nzou to an apartment complex in Avondale, where they arrested him. After arresting Nzou they found a “substantial amount of cash” hidden under a mattress, the State papers said.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Harare; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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