The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s (RBZ) Financial Intelligence Unit has identified individuals who have been using mobile phone lines and social media for illegal forex dealings (dealers) and money laundering.
The full statement by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on this issue reads as follows:
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has identified individuals listed hereunder who are abusing mobile telecommunications services and other social media platforms to promote and facilitate illegal foreign exchange transactions and money laundering activities.
The FIU has instructed banks, mobile money operators and other financial service providers to identify and freeze any accounts operated by these individuals and, further, to bar them from accessing financial services for a period of two years, with immediate effect.
The FIU has also requested the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) to bar the said individuals from operating mobile phone lines.
The FIU, in collaboration with law enforcement agencies, will continue to monitor various social media and bank accounts to identify and take action against perpetrators of illicit dealings. Over and above the corrective measures of barring the delinquent individuals from accessing banking and financial services and operating mobile phone lines, the FIU has forwarded their names and particulars to law enforcement agencies for prosecution.RBZ on Twitter
Members of the public who have information that may assist in identifying more perpetrators are urged to contact the FIU on WhatsApp numbers 0714039897 or 0780434475.
The RBZ didn’t have to list the ID numbers of those suspected
Announcing that there are people who have been found to be abusing the litany of the RBZ rules on forex trading is one thing. However, listing the phone numbers of those people and their ID numbers is something else entirely.
That, in my opinion, is a step too far by the central bank and for the privacy of those people (regardless of the charges), we will not list that information here.
Why both the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (POTRAZ) chose to use the privilege they have to sensitive information to needlessly expose citizens is beyond me.
This baffling move can easily be interpreted as a scare tactic and if that is indeed the case then they have further eroded the little trust that Zimbabweans have in the system.
8 comments
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Zimbabwe is at a shocking level when it comes to maturity as a country, & yet its claimed we the most educated in Africa.
Ha ha ha you can be highly educated and still be foolish. Also you can be uneducated and be wise.
The claim on being the most educated people in Africa is a baseless claim,we are the most literate people on the continent that is we are just good at writing and reading kkkkk by any standard Zimbabweans are just plain dumb they dont even know their rights the education system is a rack (vanhu vanodzidziswa nemateacher anomwa kachasu nemusombodiya) Cry beloved country
If its public knowledge why dont you just put the names here.You are denying us information
If you have been verified to be participating in illegal activities, you might lose your right to privacy.
You have also assumed that they are “victims” of the law, with no idea of the degree to which they have been participating in illegal activities. There is an effort to paint the money changers as people trying to get by, forgetting that some actually prefer the status quo making thousands of dollars through dealing.
Anyway, the ID numbers have been included because they are needed by the relevant institutions, to enforce the notice. This prevents any complicit institutions from claiming the notice to be unenforceable, if they are later found to be still providing the individuals service.
https://www.rbz.co.zw/documents/press/2021/September/Press-Statement—Abuse-of-Mobile-Phone-Services-to-Promote-and-Facilitate-Illegal-forex-Transactions.pdf
It isn’t much of a surprise that Neville Mutsvangwa isn’t listed there…