{"id":9612,"date":"2025-09-26T10:30:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/?p=9612"},"modified":"2025-09-26T10:30:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:30:50","slug":"trio-appears-in-court-over-us34500-rbz-exhibition-fund-hack-and-money-laundering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/?p=9612","title":{"rendered":"Trio Appears in Court Over US$34,500 RBZ Exhibition Fund Hack and Money Laundering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Crimes and Courts<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BULAWAYO \u2013 Three individuals have been dragged before the Bulawayo Regional Court facing charges of fraud and money laundering for their alleged involvement in a scheme that siphoned US$34,500 intended for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe\u2019s (RBZ) exhibition stand at the Harare Agricultural Show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The accused are Rubbie Chinanai (54), Ashel Chinanai (35), both from Bulawayo, and Tichawanda Kevin Chinyande (31) from Harare. According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the trio, along with accomplices still at large, allegedly hacked the email account of Kutting Edge Events, the legitimate contractor hired by the RBZ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prosecutors detailed that the suspects altered the contractor&#8217;s banking details, diverting two payments of US$17,250 each into Rubbie Chinanai\u2019s Stanbic Bank account between late August and early September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The NPA stated that the money was then quickly laundered through a series of transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cInvestigations showed Rubbie transferred US$6,500 to Ashel\u2019s NMB account, who then deposited part of the funds into Chinyande\u2019s ZB account on instructions from a fugitive suspect, Anold Kasasa,\u201d the authority said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A further US$6,500 was allegedly sent to a contact in South Africa via a money transfer service, while Ashel reportedly received a US$250 commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The court granted the trio bail under strict conditions, including a US$150 deposit each, weekly police reporting, and a order not to interfere with witnesses. Chinyande was additionally ordered to surrender his passport. The case has been remanded to September 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a statement, the NPA warned,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCyber-enabled fraud and money laundering are growing threats that undermine trust in financial systems. Those who abuse technology to siphon public funds will be prosecuted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow us on social media for breaking news:<br>\u00b7X (Twitter): @ZimGbc<br>\u00b7Instagram: @ZimGBCNews<br>\u00b7TikTok: @ZimGBCNews_01<br>\u00b7Facebook: Zim GBC News<br>\u00b7YouTube: Zim GBC News<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Get real-time alerts on WhatsApp:<br>+263 773 820 323<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Zim GBC News <\/strong>| Global News From An African Perspective\u00a92025 Zim GBC News<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crimes and Courts BULAWAYO \u2013 Three individuals have been dragged before the Bulawayo Regional Court facing charges of fraud and money laundering for their alleged involvement in a scheme that&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-and-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9614,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9612\/revisions\/9614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}