Zimbabwe Freezes Bank Accounts of Fuel Supplier, Auto Dealer

(Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe’s central bank froze the accounts of the country’s largest fuel supplier and car dealership, which have close ties to the government, as the regulator conducts unspecified investigations into the companies, according to a letter seen by Bloomberg.

The instruction against Sakunda Petroleum and Croco Motors is contained in a letter dated Sept. 19 from Wonder Kapofu, the director-general of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Financial Intelligence Unit. It didn’t give further details. Phone calls to the central bank for comment weren’t answered.

Sakunda controls about 30% of the southern African nation’s fuel market and has a government contract to provide fuel to farmers countrywide. Croco Motors is the biggest supplier of motor vehicles to the government. Calls to Sakunda’s number didn’t connect. Moses Chingwena, the founder of Croco, declined to immediately comment.

Officials at two banks in the southern African country confirmed the accounts were frozen. They asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak to the public on the matter.

Johannesburg-based News24 reported earlier on the accounts being frozen.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ray Ndlovu in Johannesburg at rndlovu1@bloomberg.net;Godfrey Marawanyika in Harare at gmarawanyika@bloomberg.net;Desmond Kumbuka in Harare at dkumbuka@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gordon Bell at gbell16@bloomberg.net, Hilton Shone

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