Former NMB director Mushore acquitted

Former NMB director Mushore acquitted

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By Lebo Nkatazo

JAMES Mushore, the former National Merchant Bank director arrested in October last year and charged with five counts of funnelling scarce foreign currency out of the country has been acquitted.

Harare regional magistrate Lilian Kudya ruled on Thursday that prosecutors had failed to prove that Mushore personally instructed NMB employees to channel over US$8 million to foreign bank accounts.

Simon Ngirande and Learnmore Chatima, the two state witnesses called to testify against Mushore, were “not credible” and “the court was not convinced with their testimonies”, Kudya ruled.

Mushore, who fled Zimbabwe in 2004 was, however, found guilty on a charge of breaching the Immigration Act for failing to declare his passport in his freedom dash via Zimbabwe’s northern neighbour, Zambia.

He was fined Z$1000 for the offence or the equivalent 20 days in prison.

Mushore’s defence that Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) officials escorted him into Zambia “cannot be proof of innocence”, Kudya ruled.

Mushore, a founder and former deputy managing director of NMB was arrested at his Harare home in the plush suburb of Chisipite on October 25, 2007, after returning from the United Kingdom.

Mushore is one of four top NMB executives who went into exile in 2004 after police indicated they wanted to arrest them over allegations that the bank had diverted around US$8 million from state coffers through an unregistered money transfer office in Britain.

Zimbabweans living in the diaspora were encouraged to deposit their remittances for their families with the bank's LTB Money Transfers office in London. Back in Zimbabwe, the families were paid out in Zimbabwean currency at highly-advantageous parallel exchange rates.

Authorities said LTB did not have a license from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).

After what appeared to have been a dramatic dash for freedom, Mushore's Mercedes Benz was discovered abandoned in the tourist resort of Kariba. The executive had reportedly slipped across the lake into Zambia and then travelled to London.

In an apparent reference to Mushore and his colleagues, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa in 2006 declared that bankers who had committed economic crimes would be brought to court.

But on several occasions in 2007, Mushore must have believed his freedom was not under threat. He is reported to have made several trips to Harare before his eventual arrest.
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