TWO DIRECTORS ARRESTED FOR E11 MILLION ROOTS FRAUD

MANZINI – Two directors have been arrested for allegedly defrauding their business partner a sum of E11 million.

Paulo Samina, who owns about 40 per cent shares at Roots Construction Company, was arrested together with Andrea Nassi, the Director of Inavit Construction Company after they allegedly defrauded Reuben Msibi, who owns about 60 per cent shares at Roots Construction Company, of about E11m. They were arrested yesterday by Manzini police under the Fraud Department, in partnership with Lukhozi, who are widely known as Tingculungculu.

Information gathered from a reliable source was that Roots Construction Company won a tender to construct the state-of-the-art parking lot in Manzini, which is owned by the Swaziland National Provident Fund (SNPF), but allegedly lacked some expertise, thus they ended up bringing in Nassi to be the project manager.

It is alleged that the two suspects then colluded against Msibi and sidelined him when signing some bank documents pertaining to the project.
 “When SNPF paid the first instalment of the project, which was in the region of about E15m, one or either both of the suspects allegedly opened about four accounts with the First National Bank (FNB) and divided the money across the accounts,” according to allegations by a source.

The source further alleged that either one of the suspects or both of them, allegedly transferred some of the money bit by bit to the company’s main account to finance the ongoing project. The source alleged that Msibi discovered about the developments and that a sum of about E11million was not transferred back to the company’s main bank account.

 “As a shareholder in the company, Msibi asked the bank to furnish him with all the records pertaining to the money. It transpired that the E11m was transferred by either one or both of the suspects to an account which was opened with the Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) in South Africa,” the source alleged.  

It was gathered that Msibi then reported the matter to the police for further investigations. It was also gathered that the police, who worked hand in hand with their South African counterparts, managed to locate the money in the neighbouring country and the account was frozen.

 Police Deputy Information and Communications Officer Assistant Superintendent Khulani Mamba confirmed the matter. He said the duo was arrested yesterday and would appear in court today.
The matter returns to court on Friday.

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