Own Correspondent|FLASHY Harare businessman and socialite Genius Kadungure is spending the weekend in police cells after a Harare Magistrate denied him bail “in the interest of justice” as he is thought to be a flight risk.
This weekend, Ginimbi had plans to attend the One Africa Festival as well as Formula 1 in Dubai. That won’t happen anymore as law enforcement have caged him at least for the weekend.
His charges include tax evasion, defrauding the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) as well as smuggling.
The charges against Kadungure arose after ZIMRA conducted a lifestyle audit on him and found that the assets he acquired and the lifestyle he lived between 2009 and 2016 were far beyond the income he declared over the same period of time.
A lifestyle audit is simply “a study of a person’s living standards to see if it is consistent with his or her reported income”.
Its purpose is to identify pointers to improper activity that has enabled the person to live beyond their means.
Lifestyle may be judged from things that are pretty public, such as a house, a car, a taste for extravagant food and drinks, holidays or expensive women (or men) which cannot be explained on the basis of what is known of the person’s resources. Other material may be less obvious such as the size of the person’s bank account. Some people can live apparent modest lives, preferring to hoard rather than spend their wealth.
According to a police charge sheet which ZOOMZimbabwe is in possession of, Genius Kadungure owns Piko Trading Private Limited, otherwise known as Pioneer Gases. The company supplies Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as well as LPG products, and has eleven employees.
Between February 2009 and May 2016, Genius Kadungure allegedly made a misrepresentation to ZIMRA Chief Investigations Officer Shelton Chigumira that Pioneer Gases made total sales of $2 777 678.13 (inclusive of VAT) while in actual fact the total sales were $9 092 951.51 (inclusive of VAT).
Detectives say that this was done with the intention of evading paying tax, leading to ZIMRA being prejudiced of $417 940.58.
The offence came to light when ZIMRA conducted an investigation into the operations of Pioneer Gases as well as a lifestyle audit of Genius Kadungure.
In 2015, ZIMRA conducted lifestyle audits of socialites after noting that they were living lifestyles which were far more opulent than the tax declarations they were making. Kadungure was among those socialites that ZIMRA interviewed and investigated.
On 2 March 2016, Kadungure told ZIMRA investigators that he owned th3 following property:
A Domboshava residential property valued at $200,000
A Rolls Royce motor vehicle, registration number GINIMBI, valued at ZAR 4 milliom
A Bentley motor vehicle, registration number ADD5966, valued at $50,000
A Range Rover motor vehicle, registration number not provided, valued at ZAR 1.1million
A Mercedes-Benz S Class motor vehicle, registration number not provided, valued at ZAR 1 million
A BMW motor vehicle, registration number ADP 5055, valued at $3,000
Household property in Domboshava, valued at $20,000
A team of investigators from the ZIMRA Special Projects Section asked Genius Kadungure to prove the source of income used to amass this wealth, which he failed to do.
Further investigations by ZIMRA then revealed that between January 2010 and December 2015, Kadungure did not declare sales made by his Pioneer Gases amounting to $9 092 951.51. He also concealed assets valued at $1 191 713.45.
In terms of Section 6 of the Income Tax Act, ZIMRA suffered a prejudice of $2 134 549.00 and $306 866.21 due to Kadungure’s tax evasion.
Section 81 (1) (a) of the Income Tax Act Chapter 23:06 requires that Genius Kadungure was supposed to file tax returns and pay the tax due to the Commisioner of Taxes.
But these are not the only problems Kadungure faces. He is in further trouble.
During the same period under review, 2010 to 2015, ZIMRA found that Genius Kadungure smuggled LPG gas and gas products from South Africa and Zambia valued at $672 533.93. But that is not all.
During the same period again, Kadungure did not pay Pay As You Earn (PAYE) to ZIMRA for the eleven employees under Pioneer Gases. ZIMRA suffered as PAYE tax prejudice of $355,000.00.
As a result of all these actions by Genius Kadungure, ZIMRA suffered a total prejudice of $3 468 949.14.
Nothing was recovered.
It is important to note that the ZIMRA lifestyle audit on Kadungure extended u to 2016. ZOOMZimbabwe could not verify if ZIMRA is conducting another audit for the period afterwards, as Kadungure has amassed more wealth afterwards from his own revelations.
In March 2018, Kadungure acquired a 2018 model Range Rover SVR model.
A boy’s toys: Ginimbi shows off his collection of top car models inside his Domboshava mansion
“Life of the rich and famous,” Kadungure bragged on Instagram as he posted images of the brand new latest Rover. “This is my new baby SVR 2018… Too much power, limited edition, special vehicle. Look at the interior; look at the exhaust…”
In August 2018, the Harare socialite took delivery of a 2018 Rolls Royce Ghost valued at a minimum US$314 000 or ZAR4,1 million adding to his already monstrous fleet of expensive luxury cars.
Ginimbi is famous for throwing exquisite parties like confetti at a wedding. Most of them are done aboard luxury yatchs off the coast on South African waters, or at his Domboshava mansion in Harare, or at his exclusive bar: Club Sankayi.
Early this year, Genius Kadungure hosted the 30 Billion Concert and had tongues wagging prior to the event and after. Well, there is no Ginimbi party that goes without people and the media talking about it, for the good and the bad.
Ginimbi has also of late been flexing his huge financial muscle in the music promotion industry, bringing in top rated musicians to his Club Sankayi.
“My guy, I am unpredictable and I do what you think is unimaginable. I can bring an American star when you least expect it,” Ginimbi said just beforee bringing Nigerian star Davido into Harare to celebrate his annual VIP all-white party.
The 2017 Mercedes-Benz G63 Ginimbi shows to the world. Ginimbi is set to take delivery of the 2018 model Mercedes-Benz G63 this November.
In 2016, there were interesting articles on how the flamboyant, young socialite Genius Kadungure had reportedly parted with an eye-watering US$350 000 for a Rolls-Royce Wraith.
In uncontrolled delirium, he trashed the Mercedes-Benz S Class, cynically saying it was a car for civil servants.
Sometime this month of November 2018, Genius Kadungure is set to take delivery of the 2018 model Mercedes-Benz G63. With law enforcement agents crawling all over him, it will be interesting to see if he will brag with it on Instagram – that’s assuming he’ll be out of police cells.
Even if he does wriggle his way out of this present case, Ginimbi faces yet another case of defrauding Chegutu MP Dexter Nduna and Enock Gatawa of ZAR 1 million in 2018 under the pretex of supplying mining equipment.
One way or the other, Zimbabwe’s most flashy socialite is walking a tightrope. It’s not a matter of if he will fall; it’s a matter of when.