I have discovered why times are imported as 0:00.
I've done a simple application to help e-mail migration the way you explained, but the problem was persistent.
In fact, even copying Meraks files renaming them to EML extension or migrating mailboxes with SmarterTools Merak converter tool, they all fail because they create new folders AND import emails at the same time.
IF you migrate first the mailboxes and leave SmarterMail to recreate root.cfg file (loggin in), THEN copying EML files, it works alright!!!!!!
Of course is not possible to create folders by hand, log in, log out, copy emails, for a large number of mailboxes. So my solution was:
1) first, use the SmarterMail merak converter tool to create folders and root.cfg
2) hit F3 in windows explorer and locate every *.grp file inside smartermail mailboxes, and delete them (make a backup)
3) for each user folder, copy .imap and .tmp as .eml files from merak to smartermail using a tool developed by me (anyone interested in this tool, just post a message here with email).
4) when the user logs in, all eml will be converted to grp files with correct timestamp.
I'd like to leave a suggestion to SmarterTools developers to check why this happens.
Rgds