FRIDAY, 12.15PM:
ZIMBABWEAN businessman Roger Boka, whose banking empire collapsed in May with over Z$3-billion in liabilities, has started badgering his debtors, including government ministers, demanding they pay back his money or risk being exposed, the Zimbabwean Financial Gazette reported on Thursday.
The paper reports that Boka, having received no response to appeals sent to President Robert Mugabe, is now “writing threatening letters” to debtors of his collapsed United Merchant Bank.
Boka, however, was allowed to leave the country under the name “R Marume” and is currently thought to be living in Atlanta, United States.
The Gazette reports it has copies of some letters Boka sent to debtors from Atlanta, “reminding some of the beneficiaries [that] he funded their political campaigns at the last election”. The letters indicate he is “seeking medical treatment as well as relaxing”, and “has no intention of coming home soon”.
Despite Reserve Bank governor Leonard Tsumba’s refusal to use state money to back Z$800-million worth of fraudulent bonds Boka issued for the parastatal Cold Storage Commission, Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa subsequently gave government backing to the fraudulent five-year debt instruments.