Johannesburg - The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Wednesday said it had frozen assets worth over R2.5 billion in the past five months.
NPA spokesman Nathi Mncube said this was more than the total amount it had frozen in the past four years.
“The latest success was in the Western Cape, where (the) NPA obtained a large freezing order of R48 million against businessman Mr Matthews Tuwani Mulaudzi, who had defrauded Old Mutual of this amount,” said Mncube.
The NPA froze Mulaudzi's assets, which included investments, four immovable properties in Pretoria and a vehicle.
Mulaudzi was accused of misleading Fairbairn Capital, an investment entity underwritten by Old Mutual, by falsely claiming a R48m investment, although he had already ceded the proceeds to Nedbank.
“Old Mutual was alerted by Nedbank about the cession when the latter also claimed the proceeds of the investment after the date of its maturity in terms of the cession it had from Mr Mulaudzi,” said Mncube.
Mulaudzi had also received credit of R37m from Nedbank by ceding the Old Mutual investment as security.
Investigations showed that he hid the money he received by transferring it between his 10 bank accounts at various banks and by putting it into investment plans.
Sapa