Huge forex scandal uncovered

HARARE - A fresh vehicle scandal involving top government officials has erupted in Zimbabwe. Officials close to President Robert Mugabe have been given foreign currency to acquire luxury cars at ridiculously low rates.
The British Sunday Times newspaper, which lifted the lid on the scandal, said

one recipient is Leo Mugabe, the president’s nephew, who ordered a Toyota Land Cruiser Amazon costing £46,950.
The money has been transferred to an account at Coutts in the Strand in London. However the address given for the dealership on the invoice – World Class Cars of Belvedere, Kent – is private and the Zimbabwean family living there insist they have nothing to do with Leo Mugabe or car sales.
The invoices show that the foreign currency used to obtain the cars was offered to the recipients at a rate of just Z$30,000 to the US dollar, compared with a market rate of 230,000. This suggests that in some cases cars might not have been bought at all. Fake invoices may have been used both to avoid sanctions and to move money out of the country at highly favourable rates, the newspaper said.
It also saw proof of a “strange” transfer of £80 000 into the account of Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Namibia for “medical fees”. The paper said the government documents it obtained showed the transfers of money were made last week by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to accounts in South Africa and Britain.
The payments were for more than 50 4x4s such as the Toyota Prado and Land Cruiser Amazon, some costing as much as £47,000. The total order is believed to be for more than 100 vehicles. All except two of the people on the list obtained are ruling party MPs.
The Reserve Bank has also been transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to accounts overseas, supposedly for student bursaries. On all the relevant documents obtained by this newspaper, the recipients are sons or daughters of government ministers.

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