THE investigating officer in the online Ponzi scheme, E-Creator scam, yesterday opposed granting of bail to Jao Jiaotong, Justin Kuchekenya and Trymore Tapfumaneyi.
Detective Brighton Samaneka said the E-creator founders were a flight risk, hence were not proper candidates for bail.
Investigations established that the trio defrauded unsuspecting people across Zimbabwe of US$1 million.
Samaneka said when they arrested Jiaotong last week on Wednesday, he was on the verge of skipping the country’s borders. He said Jiaotong was sitting on loads of fraudulently obtained money, which makes him want to abscond.
Jiaotong was arrested at the airport as he attempted to flee the country. Samaneka also said Kuchekenya, who was working at E-Creator offices at Joina City and could be positively identified by hundreds of witnesses, is likely to abscond because he was facing a very serious offence involving a large sum of money.
Regional magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa remanded the case to today for continuation of bail application.
Allegations are that in January this year, Jiaotong hatched a plan to defraud unsuspecting Zimbabweans through an online Ponzi scheme.
The trio allegedly connived with Bily Thomas Syedou, Abraham Mutambu and others, who are still at large, to register E-Creator Electronic Commence (Pvt) Limited with the Registrar of Companies.
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The court heard that Jiaotong went on to launch the company as an online e-commerce operator with the global internet as its domain.
From February to July, they misrepresented to unsuspecting people that if they invested with the company, they would reap huge monthly profits depending on the amount invested.
People flocked to the company and invested up to US$1 million through various EcoCash numbers supplied on the platform.
The company used the media, social media and Zimbabwean socialites to advertise.
The company employed agents in major towns and cities to market the business.
However, early this month, investors encountered challenges in accessing their funds and approached the company for clarification.
On July 5 this year, the investors discovered that E-Creator had posted a notice on its website that it was no longer operating and that Jiatong had disappeared with their money.
