Controversial businessman Franscesco Marconani has been arrested after he spent two days hiding inside a mine shaft in Matabeleland North\u2019s Inyathi area to evade arrest.<\/p>\n
The businessman, 66, who is awaiting trial on charges of illegal gun possession, eventually sneaked out of the mine shaft through a weighbridge before he was driven out in a Honda Fit to escape police officers who were waiting to arrest him at the gate of the Duration Gold Limited (DGL) 5 Mine.<\/p>\n
He had been hunted by police for over 10 days on fresh charges of fraud.<\/p>\n
He was then arrested on Friday in Harare.<\/p>\n
Marconati handed himself in after running out of options as he was supposed to report to Inyathi police as part of his bail conditions following his arrest in December last year.<\/p>\n
His latest brush with the law followed a report by DGL 5 alternate directors Yan Bo and Ke Wang.<\/p>\n
Bo accused Marconati and Mark Andrew Hughes, an Australian, who was illegally given shares by the Marondera-based businessman after an illegal takeover of the gold mine.<\/p>\n
Hughes is said to have fled the country to South Africa.<\/p>\n
The offence came to light on December 30 when Bo visited the Registrar of Companies where he discovered that Marconati and Hughes had re-registered the mine, appointing themselves as the only directors of DGL mine.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch actions by Franscesco Marconati and Mark Andrew Hughes\u00a0amount to fraud,\u201d part of Ibo\u2019s affidavit read.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is so because at the time of re-registration, Francesco Marconati and Mark Andrew Hughes had failed to enforce the court order that they had obtained under HCBC 9\/25.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means that the directors of Investment Number 5 were Xing Ming Chang, Li Song and Ke Wang.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUpon obtaining the court order under HCBC 9\/25, the two tried to enforce it and failed as the Registrar of Companies or any other director or sheriff for Zimbabwe was supposed to sign the new CR6 to enable the two to be reinstated as directors.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter having failed to execute the said order under HCBC 9\/25, it meant that the remaining directors on the CR6 were Xing Ming Chang, Li Song and Ke Wang.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Bo, Marconani and Hughes made a court application, HCBC 9\/25 to amend the court order, but withdrew the application after it flopped.<\/p>\n
This, according to Bo, means the order for HCBC 9\/25 could not be enforced and thus directorship of the mine remained unchanged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe two also filed HCBC 659\/25 being an urgent application for execution pending appeal but the application was dismissed,\u201d Bo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis, therefore, meant that the directors remained as Xing Ming Chang, Li Song and Ke Wang.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bo said the duo changed the directors and \u201cunlawfully removed legally appointed three directors\u201d\u00a0ignoring a pending court case dealing with the issue of shareholding of the company.<\/p>\n
He said Marconati and Hughes had no lawful authority to elbow the directors of DGL 5.<\/p>\n
Marconati will likely appear at the Harare Magistrate\u2019s Courts today (Saturday).<\/p>\n
The businessman\u2019s illegal guns possession case followed the fatal shooting of a local man by one of his guards.<\/p>\n
Villagers from Inyathi have also been trying to protest against Marconati over the shooting, but they were twice blocked by the police, whom they accused of protecting him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Controversial businessman Franscesco Marconani has been arrested after he spent two days hiding inside a mine shaft in Matabeleland North\u2019s Inyathi area to evade arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[788],"class_list":{"0":"post-4547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-and-courts-zimbabwe","8":"tag-franscesco-marconani"},"yoast_head":"\n