MARONDERA Businesswoman Francesco Marconati who was accused of fraud after he fraudulently removed his business partner Li Song from Eagle Italian Shoes (Pvt) Ltd directorship has been convicted of fraud and forgery.
Marconati who appeared before magistrate Donald Ndirowei today was convicted of two counts of fraud.In his ruling Ndirowei said Marconati unprocedurally removed Li Song from the company directorship and Agrilink from the company secretary after he falsified documents that both she and Agrilink resigned from the company.
The State represented by Anesu Chirenji proved that Marconati has provided false information to the Company Registrar that Song had resigned while in actual fact she did not.Magistrate Ndirowei said the accused submitted the 1st fake CR6 to Ecobank and First Capital Bank on 14 October 2021 to remove Li Song as company director and signature of the company accounts and replaced with his son Alessandaro Marconati.
The CR6 was never filed with the Registrar. Marconati did not follow procedures in removing the complainant and there is no general meeting or shareholders meeting conducted.
Also he did not advise the other shareholder Li Song and didn’t follow procedure when he went by himself to appointed his son Alessandro Marconati as director to replace Li Song in December 2022and filed 2nd forged CR6 and later on both of him and his son fraudulently forged 3rd CR6 in 2023 and appointed Kutaura Bond as extra company director.
6.8 Million United State Dollars was since lost due to his fraud and forgery. “The State proved that the company secretary was not informed of any of those changes and no resignation letter was submitted by Song. No shareholders meeting nor general meeting were conducted ” he said.
“The accused found guilty as charged,” Ndirowei ruled.Marconati was however released into the custody of his lawyer and remanded to next Tuesday for pre sentencing enquiry.