Zanu PF's Makoni West aspiring MP, Moses Ruwona, who has been languishing in jail over the past two weeks has finally been granted bail by Harare magistrate Stanford Mambanje.
Ruwona is jointly charged with one Macmillan Chiweshe who was also freed on ZW$300 000 bail with stringent reporting conditions.
They will be back in court in two weeks for their routine remand.
Ruwona, owner of Tambwari Holdings, landed in trouble after he was given a mandate to facilitate "free fund-based payments" on behalf of complainants who wanted to import goods from Mauritius and China.
The complainants include Liquid Telecoms and some clients of a local financial services company.
It is alleged that Ruwona only deposited part of the money and subsequently failed to account for and settle the balance before becoming evasive.
Prosecutors claimed that transactions between him and the complainants bordered on money laundering.
Court papers show that Ruwona was mandated with paying suppliers in Mauritius and China on the strength of his promise to use proceeds accrued from his tour operations business in Victoria Falls.
Allegations are that sometime in December 2022, Aubrey Chademana awarded a Liquid Telecoms contract to supply outdoor Wi-Fi routers.
According to court papers, the complainant was supposed to import Wi-Fi routers from Liquid's Mauritian peer.
It is alleged that on December 8, Chademana engaged Ruwona to settle the payment using his offshore foreign currency account.
The accused allegedly provided a fake proof of payment document claiming to have transferred the money from his Zambian account to Liquid's Standard Bank abroad.
On January 20 and February 3 2023, Ruwona and Chiweshe again sent the complainant fake proofs of payment.
On March 7, the duo successfully transferred US$280,332 and US$132,151.24 to Liquid, but failed to account for the remaining US$218,249.
Using the same method, they allegedly duped a local advisory firm of US$256,000 in a deal to import some fabrics.
Ruwona, who defeated ICT minister Jenfan Muswere in the recently held Zanu PF primary elections, denies the charges.
He told the magistrate that his arrest is politically motivated.
