A Harare magistrate has issued an arrest warrant for Chinese national Li Song, who is wanted in connection with the theft of trust property and fraudulent cash transfers involving millions of dollars.
Lee is the former director of Eagle Italian Leather which supplies leather products to the security sector in Zimbabwe.
The businesswoman who is also a director of DGL Investments is accused of defrauding the company of US$2 million, after she fraudulently transferred large sums of money to some offshore accounts in violation of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe regulations.
On Tuesday, Lee appeared before the Harare Magistrate’s Court in a case in which she filed a complaint against her ex-husband, Francisco Macornaty, but she managed to evade arrest after the case was heard in court.
Investigators from the Commercial Crimes Section of the Criminal Investigation Department pursued her, but allegedly failed to arrest her.
According to court papers, sometime in January 2024, an accountant at DGL Investments attempted to use the company’s Ecobank account to make foreign payments, but was informed that the account had been suspended by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
He was informed that DGL Investments had made a foreign payment of US$10,659,851-10 and was not cleared. It is also alleged that the account was used to make a further foreign payment of US$30-292,596 and no acquittal has been issued.
The company later appointed an external auditor who discovered that the Ecobank account of its subsidiary, Strengthened Investments, also contained $1,129,311.96 that had not yet been cleared.
The account was also allegedly used to make foreign payments worth US$147,400. The two companies had a total of $3,232,159-30 in foreign payments that had not been cleared, according to the auditor.
All transactions were allegedly conducted by Lee without the knowledge of the other directors and shareholders. Lee is also a director of Mauritius-registered Jacaranda Investments which was allegedly involved in defrauding RBZ Bank of millions of dollars through remittances after the company was listed as a rawhide supplier. Newsday
