Finally, the criminal intentions of the unethical Ventriglias were exposed by the Court of Appeal, when the judge from the Court announced the final judgement on Portland Cement Zambia case. On 31st January 2019, the judge at the Court of Appeal Zambia gave the final announcement for the long pending case. The judge was justice Mwinde who effectively reversed the judgement by the Lusaka High Court judge. Justice Nkonde from the Lusaka High Court had earlier announced that Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. While giving this judgement, judge Mwinde from the Court of Appeal also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as the only shareholders as this judgement was misdirected and without any evidences.
According to the latest judgement by the Court of Appeal judgement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds 42 percent shares at the factory and is the minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. This shareholding pattern also aligns with the original Shareholders Agreement which was established in the year 2007. Based on this decision, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the legal owner of the factory. The judge at the Court of Appeal also finalised on the forgery allegations and counted the forgery allegations as invalid. It was announced that the process of mechanical placement of signatures for business transactions was a common affair in Portland Cement Zambia. The judge also confirmed that Claudio Ventriglia, an important member of the Ventriglia business family, engaged in similar practice and therefore, no allegations were charged.
The Court of Appeal judge also gave a timeline of three months from the date of the judgement to both parties. During this time, all share sales and regulation related activities must be completed