ZIMBABWE Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) investigating officer Marlon Smart Mandofa who was arrested for criminal abuse of office has been granted $100 000 bail.
Mandofa is accused of shielding a fugitive, Gilad Shabtai from arrest.
Magistrate Stanford Mambanje ordered Mandofa to report once every Friday at Harare Central police. He was also ordered not to interfere with witnesses and to continue residing at his given address.
The matter was remanded to May 14. Mandofa was represented by Admire Rubaya.
The complainant in the matter is Ofer Sivan who reported a case of fraud, theft of trust property, tax evasion and externalisation of US$1,3 million from Zimbabwe to South Africa, allegedly by his co-directors Gilad Shabtai and Munyaradzi Gonyora.
Gonyora was arrested and has appeared in court, but Shabtai is still a fugitive from justice and three warrants of arrest were issued by two different magistrates.
On September 21, 2022, High Court judge, Justice Tawanda Chitapi ruled that Gonyora and Shabtai’s conduct was an act of fraud against Adlecraft Investments (Pvt) Ltd.
The two accused persons were ordered to pay back the externalised US$1,3 million to Adlecraft Investments.
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Zacc officials, however, reportedly turned a blind eye to the issue and, instead, pursued a forgery charge filed against Sirvan by some anonymous person.
It is further alleged that Mandofa then teamed up with his accomplices and received a report from an accused person who was appearing at Harare magistrates’ court on routine remand.
This was despite Mandofa being fully aware that there was a more serious case of externalisation of US$1,3 million against Gonyora and Shabtai.
He then went on to arrest Sirvan, yet fugitive Shabtai was still being investigated under file number CID CCD DR 44/08/21.
Sirvan then queried his arrest since he was an informant, saying Shabtai could not have contacted Zacc because he had a pending warrant of apprehension by the CID.
Sirvan was arraigned before the courts, while Shabtai was reportedly receiving preferential and royal treatment from Zacc officials. Shabtai’s warrant of arrest was shown to Mandofa, who allegedly ignored it.
When Shabtai's travel history was obtained from the Immigration department it was discovered that he had been constantly visiting the country despite three warrants of arrest hanging over his head.
