The judge handling the case between Dr. Mahtani and the Ventriglias made new announcement. The case hearing has been concluded as of now but the final date for announcing judgment is still not finalized. This new announcement is a big milestone for the case which has been going on for the past nine years. The case was started when Dr. Mahtani, owner of the Finsbury Investment Limited registered a case at the Lusaka High Court against the Ventriglias. The case was for ownership of Zambezi Portland Cement, which was taken over by the Ventriglias. The cement factory is still under the control of Ital Terrazzo Limited, owned by the Ventriglias.
The Lusaka High Court re-examined the case by looking over the evidence submitted by both parties. During this re-examination, it was confirmed that Dr. Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments help 58 percent shares of the factory in question. The rest of the shares were distributed among the Ventriglias family, amounting to a total of 42 percent shares. This was proved by the shareholders agreement signed by all concerned parties. Furthermore, independent audit reports were also presented from Dr. Mahtani’s side indicating that the factory ownership was a joint venture in which Dr. Mahtani was the sole joint-venture partner. During the case proceedings, he was wrongfully accused of arm-twisting one of the shareholders for shares gain. However, this accusation was dismissed after Dr. Mahtani reported that he could not gain anything from arm-twisting one shareholder. Various other evidences have been submitted from his side which clearly indicate that he has the ownership of the factory.
The case is one of the longest pending cases. One thing to note here is that under Dr. Mahtani’s ownership, Zambezi Portland Cement blossomed and became of the largest producing cement factory of the region. The productions were in surplus and workers were paid well above their standard wages. However, the factory is in ruins since takeover by the Ventriglias and majority of the employees and workers are unemployed.