Bail set at $1m for gospel musician Charamba

Bail set at $1m for gospel musician Charamba

CHARAMBA

By Staff Reporter

GOSPEL singer and pastor Charles Charamba has been charged with $40 million fraud after spending the weekend in police holding cells.

Charamba was brought to the Harare magistrates' courts under heavy police guard on Monday where charges were read out to him before bail was set at $1 million. He will next appear in court on September 6.

Charamba was seized from his Borrowdale home on Friday. Prosecutors say he connived with a bank manager at Agribank's Mvurwi branch to steal $40 million, $9 million of which has been recovered from his bank account.

Also charged was former Agribank manager Sebastian Mupa, 31, who is alleged to have assisted Charamba in defrauding the bank.

Charamba was ordered to hand over his passport and report once a week to CID Fraud in Harare.

Charamba and Mupa face charges of originating loan account opening forms in October last year purpoting that the musician had applied for a $40 million to buy farming equipment.

State prosecutors will seek to prove that Charamba had in fact not applied for any loan, although Mupa went on to sign a $40 million cheque which was deposited in the musician's account, which had been opened a day earlier to "facilitate the fraud".

Charamba who is pastor with the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe is winner of many awards on the domestic scene and has hit the big time with chart-busting albums like Exodus and Sunday Service from which came hits like Mhinduro Iripo and Musoro.
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