Cranswick was sworn in before his interview with ATO officers. He was warned that “unlike a police interview, an interview conducted pursuant to section 264 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, you do not have the right to remain silent, even if the answers may incriminate you”.
Roy Tucker, the group financial director and company secretary from its formation said it would be too costly to dig up the information on what happened to the Adonis investment.
“I am not wishing to be unhelpful but what you ask would cost us money. We would have to dig back with our Company Registrar as these are records we simply do not keep. As for the number of accounts that Adonis is currently representing this is not within the knowledge of the Company or the Registrar,” he said.
James Spinney of Strand Hanson Limited, Vast Resources’ nominated and financial advisor, said he did not have the company’s authority to release the information that The Insider wanted. It was therefore better to ask Vast Resources directly for the information.
While Mugabe was livid at the Goromonzi conference that some of his lieutenants, especially Mujuru, had teamed up with ACR, Cranswick has repeatedly denied that Mujuru had a stake in the company. He, however, told SW Radio that ACR had 25 black shareholders whom he did not name.
Partnership Africa Canada, a diamond watchdog, said in its report Diamond and Clubs, published in June 2010, that most of ACR’s problems stemmed from the fact Solomon Mujuru was a shareholder.
“ACR contends that his share is no bigger than 3%, worth a monetary value of 240 000 pounds sterling,” the report said. But it added that no one believes that Mujuru owns such a small stake because “there is nothing about Solomon Mujuru that is small time. He is not the kind of guy who buys shares and sits back waiting for the investor newsletter”.
(1949 VIEWS)
