Reynolds, 62 was arrested Monday by police detectives and immigration officials at a Harare hotel, according to the state-controlled newspaper, The Herald.
Reynolds is being held in custody and is expected to appear in court soon, immigration official Ario Mabika told The Associated Press.
According to the reports, Reynolds brought several Zimbabwean models and other women to his hotel room where he took photographs and videos.
Reynolds was outraged during the arrest, the newspaper said, because he brought investors to the country and had called for U.S. sanctions to be dropped against President Robert Mugabe and his top associates.
This is the latest of several legal problems for Reynolds, a former congressman from Illinois with an impeccable pedigree. The Illinois Democrat who once was a Rhodes scholar and graduated from Harvard University and was considered a rising star within the Democratic Party. But his inability to corral his personal appetites derailed would could have been a brilliant career.
Reynolds resigned from his congressional seat in 1995 after he was convicted of 12 counts of statutory rape, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography. While in prison he was also convicted of bank and campaign fraud. He was in jail until his sentence was commuted by President Bill Clinton in Jan. 2001.
Regarding Reynolds’ latest arrest in Zimbabwe, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy, Karen Kelley, said the embassy could not comment as it was a private matter and the embassy did not did not have a privacy waiver.
Reynolds also has accumulated hotel bills worth $24,500 which he has not yet paid, reported The Herald.
Reynolds could face up to two years’ imprisonment or a hefty fine if found guilty of possessing pornographic material and deportation for breaching Zimbabwean immigration laws as it is illegal in Zimbabwe to possess any material of a sexual nature.
The relationship between Reynolds and the Southern African nation was once prized and cherished by both sides. He had gained prominence in Zimbabwe for being involved in attracting investment for the $145 million construction of a Hilton Hotel and office complex in Harare, reported The Herald. Construction is expected to begin in April and be finished in last 2016, said the newspaper.
“He toured the construction site back then in the company of government ministers Walter Mzembi, Webster Shamu and Ignatius Chombo, and businessman Mr Farai Jere,” according to the paper.
It is too bad that things have gone south for Reynolds in American and Africa. Reynolds once unseated U.S. Rep. Gus Savage in 1992, two years after a House ethics committee determined that during an official trip to Africa Savage had made improper sexual advances to a female Peace Corps volunteer.
But then Reynolds was convicted in his own sex case and sent to prison in 1995. Later, while still behind bars, he was convicted of fraud for concealing debts to obtain bank loans and diverting money intended for voter registration drives into his election campaign.
