The Lusaka High Court recently finalized a case hearing between the Ventriglias and Dr. Rajan Mahtani. The case is specifically registered in the name of Finsbury Investments owned and run by Dr. Rajan Mahtani and the Ventriglia family, especially Antonio Ventriglia and his wife. The case was first registered by Dr. Mahtani when the Ventriglias illegally took over the Zambezi Portland Cement, which is legally owned by Dr. Mahtani. After that, the Ventriglias also challenged the contention by arguing that Dr. Rajan Mahtani did not pay for the shares he holds at the factory.
To prove his contention, Dr. Mahtani has shared various documents and evidence to the judge residing the case. A signed shareholder’s agreement has been shared which clearly indicated that Dr. Mahtani’s Finsbury Investment holds 58 percent shares in the factory while the Ventriglias owned ITL (Ital Terrazzo Limited) only holds 42 percent. The legal battle between these two has been going on for more than 10 years. This shareholder’s agreement has also been approved by the judge for evaluating the judgment.
Dr. Rajan Mahtani also paid for entire ZPC share capital amounting to USD 250,000 and the Ventriglias invested nothing, as per the testimonies and financial reports. Various exhibits were also shown by Dr. Rajan Mahtani which clearly indicated that Finsbury Investments have invested more than USD seven million in the factory while Ital Terazzo only invest around USD Five million. Also, an independent audit was conducted by Dr. Mahtani and as per the Independent report, he is the sole joint venture partner of the factory and the Ventriglias are only the shareholders.
The case is current under Justice Nkonde and the recent closure of the hearing has been considered as a big milestone for the long-pending case. Both parties will be submitting their evidences and post evaluation of these evidences, final judgment will be given.