( 4 minutes read)
· ECONET Wireless Private Limited (EWPL) has filed an urgent application to the High Court of Zimbabwe seeking a stay of execution against a Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) warrant of search and seizure of their premises.
· On July 17, 2020, ZRP filed an affidavit to investigate allegations of violations of the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act by Econet Wireless.
ECONET Wireless Private Limited (EWPL) has filed an urgent application to the High Court of Zimbabwe seeking a stay of execution against a Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) warrant of search and seizure of their premises.
On July 17, 2020, ZRP filed an affidavit to investigate allegations of violations of the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act by Econet Wireless.
ZRP allegations are that during the period January 1 to June 30, 2020, Econet Wireless and its ‘subsidiaries’ created fictitious individual subscribers, merchant billers and agents crediting them huge amounts of money to be distributed to their runners through trust accounts. This, the investigating agency, is maintaining is a clear case of money laundering.
The company also used the digital money to buy foreign currency from the parallel market. This has attracted issuance of a warrant of search and seizure from the Provincial Magistrate. However, ECONET’s lawyers argue that the warrant is an intrusion into the privacy of the applicant’s subscribers. ECONET, as of July 1,2020, has a subscriber base of 11,405,557.
The ZRP’s plea is that the runners would use its digital money to buy foreign currency from the parallel market. The reason behind ZRP seeking the search and seizure right is to check the malpractices and to bring the people indulged in that to books. According to the government sources, because of the illegal trading in currencies, inflation has vaulted up and the value of the local currency went rock bottom in terms of dollars.
