The Supreme Court of Zambia recently threw out an appeal made by the Ventriglia family. In this appeal, members of the Ventriglia family challenged the earlier decision by the Court of Appeal in which the judge finalised that Finsbury Investments holds 58 percent shares of the Portland Cement Zambia factory and Ital Terrazzo Limited held 42 percent shares along with the amount finalised for payment to Ventriglias at K580,000. In their appeal, the Ventriglia family appealed that the payment decided by the higher Court of Appeal was incorrect and correct payment to the Ventriglias amounted to K580 million.

It should be noted here that the case of Portland Cement Zambia was first registered at the Lusaka High Court wherein justice Nkonde gave a controversial decision by announcing Ventriglias as only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia. However, subsequent investigations by the Higher Court of Appeal judge revealed that the method of judgement from the Lusaka High Court judge and the decision was tainted with corruption and fraud. Finsbury Investments in their appeal to the higher Court of Appeal after the initial misdirected judgement by the Lusaka High Court established several grounds. After investigations, all seven grounds were accepted with evidences and testimonials and final decision was given in the favour of Finsbury Investments and its owner, Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani. Even the amount payment to the Ventriglias was adjusted in a transparent manner, according to the 2012 re-domination of the currency Act number 8.

After the appeal made by the Ventriglias family to the Supreme Court of Zambia, a bench comprising of three judges was established to validate as well as accept or reject the appeal. After evaluation, the Supreme Court judges declared that they had no jurisdiction in this matter and the appeal was legally flawed. If Ventriglias wanted to made an appeal, they should have done it within fourteen days of the judgement by the higher Court of Appeal. As such, the appeal from the Ventriglias was discarded and the matter is closed.