Fraud accused ZACC officer remanded in custody

ZIMBABWE Anti-corruption Commission (ZACC) officer Mandofa Smart Marlon who was arrested yesterday (Friday) for fraud has been remanded in custody until Monday.

Businessman Ofer Sivan filed a complaint with CID CCD after his allegedly wrongful arrest by Mandofa and his associates in January 2022. Following this report and investigations by the CID CCD, he was arrested on the 10th of March 2023 for charges of fraud.

ZACC officer Mandofa Smart Marlon is facing charges of fraud

The charge comes about after Mandofa took a complaint by Gilad Shabtai, who wanted in Zimbabwe for alleged tax evasion.

Whilst representing ZACC as an officer of the law, Mandofa seems to have been compromised in that the investigations against Ofer Sivan were not conducted in a manner according to the code and conduct of the laws of Zimbabwe.

Magistrate Ngoni Nduna moved the proceedings to Monday, with Mandofa being held in remand until that time, after the State Prosecutor citing she was not well enough to continue with proceedings today.

Mandofa was to appear with his co-accused, Chinomona and Mutembwa today, however they are still at large. The three turned a blind eye when accepting a fraudulent complaint from Gilad Shabtai in that he never appeared personally to make the complaint, which is the correct method in which complaints are taken. They also ignored the fact that Gilad Shabtai and Munyaradzi Gonyora had outstanding warrants of arrest against them and had failed to avail themselves for questioning in the many illegal activities of which they have been involved.

However, they acted extremely quickly to have Mr Ofer Sivan arrested without conducting the proper investigations or even asking any questions of the accused. Mr Sivan was never given the time of day to make any comments regarding these allegations. And in the process of Mr Sivan’s bail hearing Mandofa proceeded to lie approximately 128 times on the stand whilst under oath.

Gilad Shabtai and Munyaradzi Gonyora after all of their antics, were declared as having committed fraud, and misappropriation of company funds on 21 September 2022 by Honorable J Chitapi in the High Court of Harare following the complaint by Ofer Sivan, which is in conjunction to the reports filed against Smart Mandofa.

The State today said that its investigations of the matter in Mandofa’s “involvement” have since established that from the initial stage of reporting the case up until the matter was referred for prosecution, Shabtai never presented himself physically to accused persons, an act facilitated by these three accused persons to ensure Shabtal was not arrested.

“A request for travel history in respect of Gilad Shabtai Passport Numbers 39014276 and 39004783 (Israel) ID Number 0-0769507-5 to the Chief Director of Immigration, Zimbabwe Immigration Department for the period extending from 01 November 2021 to 18 August 2022. The results show that Gilad Shabtai was out of the country when the case was reported at ZACC up until mutter was referred to court for prosecution. The travel record shows that Gilad Shabtai visited Zimbabwe through Robert Mugabe International Airport on 17 July 2022 and on 18 July 2022, he left Zimbabwe. The comment on the travel history can be produced in court as evidence.”

Further read the charge sheet: “A copy of the docket reported and investigated at ZACC under ZACC H/CR 55.11.2021 PGD 418/22 was obtained and secured as an exhibit under exhibit book number 02/23 at CCU. The evidence in the docket substantiates that indeed Gilad Shabtai’s case was initially received at ZACC on the 18th of November 2021 purportedly as an anonymous as per entry 01 of the diary log. Instead, the report was made by Munyaradzi Gonyora who was on remand at Harare Magistrate Court jointly charged together with Gilad Shabtai in a case that was reported by Ofer Sivan and was investigated at CID CCD under CCD DR 44/08/21”.

ZRP officials involved in the investigations state that there is overwhelming evidence that Mandofa was paid richly by Gilad Shabtai to not only tarnish the name of Ofer Sivan but also to ensure that he was caused irreparable harm not only personally but also affecting the company which he runs and divert attention from Shabtai and Gonyora alleged illegal wrong doings.