Mirirai Chiremba who was last night suspended by RBZ governor John Mangudya over allegations of corruption and involvement in the foreign currency black market was previously suspended by former RBZ governor Gideon Gono over similar allegations. Chiremba who is the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) was suspended back in 2007 after he allegedly exposed the RBZ’s role in purchasing foreign currency on the black market.
Chiremba who was responsible for raising foreign currency on the black market for the central bank was allegedly skimming some of the money by inflating the rates at which he had purchased the foreign currency. A source who spoke to The Zimbabwean back then said,
It was easy to fleece the central bank governor this way because no receipts were given from the black market. But the governor became suspicious when at one point Chiremba claimed the rates were at Z$250,000 to the US dollar when in actual fact the greenback was fetching Z$180,000 on the day in question.
Gono is reported to have engaged his own investigators who exposed the scam. However, Gono is reported to have been advised not to fire Chiremba as the move could have exposed a lot of officials.
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