Krejcir’s manager facing extra charges

717 04.02.2014 Czech businessperson Radovan Krejcir’s money point business manager Ivan Savov speaks to his lawyer at his appearance at the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crime court yesterday. After he was denied bail last year. He faces chargers of fraud and money laundering. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng

717 04.02.2014 Czech businessperson Radovan Krejcir’s money point business manager Ivan Savov speaks to his lawyer at his appearance at the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crime court yesterday. After he was denied bail last year. He faces chargers of fraud and money laundering. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng

Published Feb 5, 2014

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Johannesburg -

Radovan Krejcir’s business manager faces three extra charges of fraud in addition to the about R13 million fraud charge he already faces.

This was revealed by the prosecution in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Tuesday, where Ivan Savov appeared.

Savov is the business manager at Money Point, the shop in Bedfordview believed to be under Krejcir’s control.

A bomb was detonated at the shop in November last year, killing two people.

Savov was arrested soon after the blast - on charges unrelated to the explosion - for fraud, money laundering and theft of R12.8m from the Absa account of Bloemfontein Correctional Contracts dating back to a few days over January and February last year.

“After the matter against Mr Savov was placed on the court roll, the South African Revenue Service opened three other dockets of fraud,” said prosecutor Richard Tshabalala.

He said these additional dockets were opened in Pretoria and did not include Savov’s three co-accused, but rather other “partners in crime”.

The three co-accused for the current fraud case are Vuyolethu Vuyo Koboka, Naledi Clifford None and Dimakatso Surprise Kunupi.

Tshabalala promised the court that the Director of Public Prosecutions would make a decision before the end of this week on whether to combine the three new dockets with Savov’s current case. However, he said he did not know how far investigations into these new cases had gone.

Savov’s lawyer, Saleem Ebrahim, questioned why investigators had yet to obtain a statement from Jennifer Faber – a director of the firm of attorneys the State said had received the money on behalf of Savov - as investigations had begun last February.

“My client has the right to a speedy trial,” Ebrahim said.

However, magistrate Jeremy Janse van Vuuren said the State’s explanation that Faber was unavailable because she had been in hospital and could give a statement only today was “reasonable”.

The case was postponed until March 6 for further investigations.

In his bail application in November, Savov denied the charges against him in an affidavit and said they were a result of “the hype” around his boss.

Savov and Koboka are in custody, while None and Kunupi are out on R3 000 bail each. - The Star

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