Police assistant commissioner Jealous Nyabasa and his subordinates are being accused of protecting a Chinese national Li Song who is being accused of fraud, forgery and externalising of foreign currency.
An Italian investor wrote to Police Commissioner Godwin Matanga and copied to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), accusing Nyabasa of shielding the Chinese national from the investigation.
Francesco Marconati who is a co-director, along with Song, at Eagle Italian Shoes said Song has political, diplomatic and intelligence links and has been reported to ZACC and the police who allegedly ignored the submissions, according to NewsDay Zimbabwe.
Eagle Italian Shoes supplies the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), Zimbabwe Prison Services (ZPCS) and the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) among others with leather shoes, helmets and baton sticks.
Marconati filed charges of fraud, perjury and externalisation of forex against Song in October 2021 arguing that she was using a company in Mauritius by the name of Jacaranda Consultancy that belongs to her.
In a letter dated September 12, 2022, Marconati complained that after the report, a team of detectives was deployed to undertake a private investigation on behalf of Song. He said:
The team spent one week in Bulawayo to retrieve information that Song intended to use for a civil suit. There is no known criminal allegation raised against this company, but in fact, Song is the one with pending criminal charges for the money she misappropriated in all the companies.
On September 20 (this year), I wrote another complaint after receiving information that they are now tracking my son using the information of the car track that Song had provided them. I fear that my son’s life is also in danger. The same police are using State resources to advance the interest of Song. Song is always in and out of the office of Nyabasa but when it comes to serving summons for her to go to court, they (police) always state that they cannot locate her.
Marconati claims that Nyabasa also deployed a team of detectives to Marondera’s Eagle Italian Shoes premises and interviewed employees concerning his personal life, leading the employees to stage a demonstration against Song.
He says there is no known criminal allegation levelled against him or his companies adding that Nyabasa was abusing his power to silence him.
Marconati alleged that Jacaranda Consultancy was Song’s briefcase company that she used to swindle the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe by receiving foreign currency at the auction floor and then externalise the funds.
He alleges that Nyabasa is being used to promote a new company that was set up by Song in Southerton, Harare which is trying to make shoes on behalf of the police also.
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