Court Reporter
Canadian businessman, Allan Brent Dolan, the principal director of Duration Gold Zimbabwe, has been caught in a storm of corporate deception, multi-million-dollar tax evasion, and immigration violations amid revelations that he is illegally running a vast mining empire on a mere visitor’s visa.
Court records and official documents layout a calculated plot by the Canadian national to subvert a High Court civil judgment lawfully obtained against his firm by local mining partners John Farley Pietersen and Mark Johnstone over lucrative gold claims in Filabusi.
In a frantic bid to retain control of the wealthy gold assets, DGL Finance Limited—a Dolan-controlled entity—clutched at straws by instigating criminal fraud charges against Pietersen and Johnstone.
Dolan’s legal team claimed the partners fraudulently obtained a default High Court judgment under Case No. HC 5655/25, which granted them a 57.40 percent majority stake in the joint venture, by allegedly serving court papers to an outdated address at 105 Plumtree Road, Donnington, Bulawayo.
However, official High Court records completely demolish this narrative, exposing it as a desperate fabrication.
High Court Summons and Returns of Service under Case No. HCH3656/25 explicitly prove that service was executed legally, properly and transparently.
A Return of Service dated August 6, 2025, confirms that Assistant Sheriff Tichaona Shonhiwa successfully served the Summons and Plaintiff’s Declaration at the 105 Plumtree Road address.
More damningly, Dolan’s own legal representatives, Moyo and Nyoni Legal Practitioners, formally admitted to receiving these papers.
In a signed Notice of Entry of Appearance to Defend filed directly in the High Court, the firm explicitly stated that “the Summons was served on the 3rd and 4th Defendants on the 6th of August 2025 and on the 5th Defendant on the 15th of August 2025.”
Despite these explicit court filings acknowledging proper service, Dolan’s team misled state prosecutors by claiming they had no knowledge of the litigation, using this deception to orchestrate the arbitrary arrest of Pietersen, who was forced to part with $500 bail to secure his freedom.
The roots of the dispute trace back to a 2012 Joint Venture Agreement regarding the Royal Family and Marvel gold claims in Filabusi.
Under this agreement, Pietersen and Johnstone contributed claims valued at US$2.7 million, while Dolan promised to provide mining equipment and carbon-in-leach plant structures valued at $1.5 million. Over a decade later, that equipment has never arrived.
When Pietersen successfully sued to claim his 57.40 percent shareholding, Dolan resorted to illicit corporate maneuvers to bypass the judiciary.
Court filings expose that the original foreign shareholder, DGL 21, a Mauritian entity, was formally deregistered and ceased to exist.
Instead of liquidating or transferring the assets legally, Dolan manufactured a new entity called DGL 21 Finance and illicitly transferred the corporate shares to it.
This transfer violated fundamental commercial laws, as it was executed while the shares were subject to active, unresolved litigation and was processed without obtaining a mandatory Capital Gains Tax Clearance Certificate from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA).
Perhaps the most glaring irony of Dolan’s corporate raiding is his own precarious legal status within Zimbabwe.
While he actively utilizes state machinery to lock up his local business partners, a confidential informant with direct knowledge of Duration Gold’s internal executive structure alleged that that Dolan is operating in Zimbabwe on a holiday or visitor’s visa.
The informant notes that Dolan should have an investment or work permit, and that “he can’t legally be a director, let alone an ‘executive director,’ on a visitor’s visa,” placing him in blatant breach of immigration law.
Under Zimbabwe’s Immigration Act, it remains strictly illegal for any foreign national to conduct commercial operations, sign executive corporate mandates, or direct mining operations while on a tourist visa.
This predatory business model follows a historic pattern of asset stripping and corporate insolvency in Sierra Leone.
Regulatory intelligence reveals that Dolan was previously banned and declared persona non grata in Sierra Leone for allegedly utilising identical corporate-raiding methods.
In Zimbabwe, his alleged takeover of the historic Forbes and Thompson mining operation drove it into catastrophic bankruptcy, leaving more than 500 local mineworkers unpaid for months while Dolan stripped the company.
While failing to compensate his workforce, Dolan has accumulated astronomical debts to the Zimbabwean state and various statutory bodies.
Annexures on court papers seen by this publication revealed massive outstanding debts, including US$2,671,656.00 in withholding tax to ZIMRA, an additional US$1,116,000.00 in general ZIMRA debt, US$440,232.60 to Fidelity Printers and Refiners, US$145,383.23 to the National Social Security Authority (NSSA), and ZWL$693,372,717.00 to the Mining Industry Pension Fund.
This is in addition to other 15 private companies he is owing money that runs into thousands of dollars.
A former senior worker (name supplied) at Forbes and Thompson confirmed that instead of settling these debts, Dolan is allegedly actively seeking to liquidate remaining company real estate, including worker housing, through illegal, unrecorded cash sales to external buyers in order to raise capital and circumvent liquidators and ZIMRA asset attachments.
With millions of dollars owed to the state, hundreds of workers left destitute, and clear violations of immigration and tax laws, Dolan’s operations remain a critical test for Zimbabwe’s anti-corruption units and regulatory oversight.
