Daily fraud update- 16th January

Chris Lee

Zimbabwean woman in court over forex case

 A woman from a major Zimbabwean city has found herself in court over accusations that she defrauded a prominent local musician.

Simangani Gwemende, who is 45 years old and is from the Emganwini area of the country’s second largest city Bulawayo, is accused of conspiring with others to carry out a scam against musician Sandra Ndebele-Sibindi.

Gwemende is accused of defrauding Ndebele-Sibindi out of a sum around $100,000 – and has now been held in custody over the accusations following her appearance before a local magistrate.

The next step in the process will be a bail hearing.

Allegedly, Gwemende and two accomplices conspired to scam Ndebele-Sibindi out of the money following Ndebele-Sibindi’s request to convert cash she had given them into US dollars.

A prosecutor in the case alleged that the suspected crimes were carried out back in October 2018.

“The accused person approached the complainant and misrepresented to her that she was in a position to source foreign currency for her”, said the prosecutor, Denmark Chihombe.

“The complainant believed that the accused person and her accomplices were genuine and gave them $100 000 in exchange for United States dollars”, he added.

According to the allegation, an accomplice of Gwemende’s then went to a police station and claimed that she had had a sum of foreign currency stolen from her – a move which is now allegedly to have been false.

Following the incident, Sandra Ndebele-Sibindi approached the police and made a report – which, in turn, triggered the taking of Gwemende into custody.

Her alleged accomplices are Amanda Onwuchukwu and Lindiwe Ndlovu – although local reports in the country did not indicate the ages or addresses of those people.

Neither of the other two people have yet been apprehended – although Ndlovu did come before the court last year.

Ndlovu has since, however, gone missing.

This is a relatively common practice in countries such as Zimbabwe, given the relative lack of strength that that the local currency enjoys.

Spanish regulator hits out at accused firm 

A regulator in Spain has hit a cryptocurrency firm with a warning over allegations that it has carried out securities fraud.

The country’s National Securities Market Commission said that Mind Capital, which has been described in the crypto press as a “crypto investment firm”, was not registered to deal in securities.

In an announcement posted on its website, the Commission said that the firm had not received the relevant permissions to operate.

The “National Securities Market Commission…warns that: MIND.CAPITAL is not authorised to provide the investment services detailed in Article 140 of the Securities Markets Law; and is not authorized to perform the activities reserved for collective investment institutions”, it said.

It also directed those who had any enquiries about the firm or the allegations to get in touch.

“For any enquiries, please contact the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores enquiry line on

900 535 015 or visit CNMV’s website (www.cnmv.es)”, it added.


Chris Lee

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