Claim By The Ventriglias Rejected By Supreme Court Zambia, Portland Cement Stays With Dr. Rajan Mahtani

Finsbury Investments is one of the top organizations within Zambia. It is an investment firm owned by Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani, a noted businessman in Zambia. In the year 2006, Finsbury Investments was given 58 percent shares of the Portland Cement Zambia factory which made it the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory. However, trouble started knocking the door of the factory when the Ventriglias took a steep turn and unethically acquired the Portland Cement Factory with the help of goons. Dr. Rajan Mahtani was forced to approach the Lusaka High Court with the hope of quick response. However, the court proceedings at Lusaka High Court dragged for more than a decade and despite having all evidences and testimonials, Dr. Rajan Mahtani was not given the justice he deserved. He then approached the higher Court of Appeal with his claim. The judge at the higher Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde and after looking into the evidences, final decision was given on 31st January 2019. In this decision, justice Mwinde effectively reversed the judgement from the Lusaka High Court and announced Finsbury Investments as the actual owner of the Zambezi Portland factory with majority shareholding. Furthermore, justice Mwinde also confirmed that the amount payable against the majority shares owned by Finsbury Investments is K580,000. 

In another twist, the Ventriglias approached the Supreme Court with claims that the decision from higher Court of Appeal as incorrect. However, after evaluation, the Supreme Court bench have effectively rejected this claim based on grounds that the case was not legally acceptable due to its late appeal and the circumstances surrounding the appeal were dubious. As such, Portland Cement Zambia factory stays with Dr. Rajan Mahtani. 

Unethical Attempt By The Ventriglias Busted, Supreme Court Zambia Rejects Appeal

The latest decision from the Supreme Court Zambia on the claim made by the Ventriglias reveals a lot. It shows that unethical entities like the Ventriglias can go to any extent to fulfil their personal gains and wishes. It also shows that there is a need for more courts and legal systems such as the higher Court of Appeal as well as judges who stick to transparent, ethical and honest decisions and nothing else. 

The case pf Zambezi Portland Cement goes far bac. After Finsbury Investments was made the dominant part investor and legitimate proprietor of the Portland Cement Zambia production line, Ventriglias chose to assume control over the processing plant. For this, the shareholding register and different instruments marked and used for affecting changes inside PACRA framework was contested. This PACRA framework was steady with investors' arrangement and in spite of this, the Ventriglias had the option to contest them with their mafia-way of life and political interfering. This endeavor by the Ventriglias to deny the proprietor of the Portland Cement dominant part stake is an away from of bad-to-the-bone crimes inside the Zambian corporate. Because of these moves, the Ventriglias had the option to slow down the procedures at Lusaka High Court for over 10 years and convince justice Nkonde from the Lusaka High Court to report Ventriglias as the main investors of the Portland Cement Zambia.

However, after higher Court of Appeal revesed this decision from the Lusaka High Court, the Ventriglias appealed to the Supreme Court challenging the decision. However, this appeal has since been rejected by the Supreme Court as it does not fulfill any criteria for acceptance.