AN ALLEGED criminal mastermind arrested by Bulawayo police last week over a R2 million swindle has been freed on US$2,000 bail.

The 30-year-old handed himself over to detectives on March 7 after two of his alleged accomplices were arrested over the elaborate racket.

Prosecutors had opposed bail for Chivayo, arguing that his links with the United Kingdom, South Africa and the United States made him a flight risk.

But Justice Nicholas Ndou, sitting at the Bulawayo High Court, took aim at the prosecutors for failing to disclose that Chivayo had surrendered himself to the police after several months on the run.

Chivayo, of Stanchart Lane, Greystone Park, Harare, has engaged high-powered defence lawyer Joseph James in a bid to beat seven counts of fraud and one of money laundering.

Under the terms of his release, Chivayo, known as B.I.G. because of his hefty frame, must give up his passport, report once every Friday to the Harare Central Police Station and surrender title deeds to his property.

Prosecutors say Chivaro came up with an elaborate scheme in which he registered shelf companies in South Africa and created dozens of fake company websites before misrepresenting himself as a broker trying to facilitate business between legitimate companies in Zimbabwe and his briefcase operations.

Several companies and individuals transferred money to accounts in South Africa for the supply of certain goods but Chivayo allegedly withdrew the money and vanished. Between January 2009 and January this year, he is alleged to have defrauded three companies of R883,000, including the hardware firm Astra Building Supplies.

After representing himself as an agent of a South African firm called Silver Crown Equipment, Chivayo and nine other alleged accomplices are said to have received an order for three new Mazda T35 engines, three gear boxes, four new hand-held diesel powered poker vibrators, four new drive units, four hand-held Honda GX270 diesel powered plate compactor from Astra.

Astra paid R185,527 for the order but what was delivered were three-second hand gearboxes and three-second hand KIA engines, which he purported were new, according to the charges. He also delivered four second hand vibrators and Honda plate compactor.

Prosecutors say the plan involved duping Zimbabwean companies into placing orders at highly-inflated prices from fake South African companies, and when the goods were delivered they were almost always second hand and worthless. But the masterminds would vanish soon after without trace.

In related cases, working with alleged accomplices at several banks, Chivayo is also alleged to have identified individuals with big deposits whom he approached with double-your-money ideas, this time posing variously as an agent for Shamva Gold Mine, West Nicholson Mine and a Canadian company called Wallbridge. While all three companies had impressive websites, in reality they were fakes, say prosecutors.

Chivayo, it is alleged, then approached Bhekimpilo Ncube of Woodlands, Bulawayo (R313,000); Clement Munetsi of Harare (R103,275), Christopher Sambaza of Harare (R460,000), Kazembe Kazembe of Harare (R420,000) and Lloyd Madate also of Harare (R420,000) pretending that the mines he represented wanted equipment from South Africa urgently.

It is alleged he identified his shelf companies in South Africa as the miners’ preferred suppliers. The men were to buy the equipment and then make up to 500 percent profit on delivery.

Chivayo and his alleged accomplices, however, simply pocketed the money after it hit their accounts in South Africa and vanished, prosecutors say.

Norman Nompilo Ndlovu, 31, and Nkosilomusa Mkhululi Mpofu, 27, both of Harare, have already been arrested for their part in the alleged swindle and await trial. Seven other suspects are still at large.