JOHANNESBURG - The Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) has appointed Advocate Terry Motau as an investigator to conduct a forensic investigation into the affairs of VBS.
Sarb said in a statement, the primary objective of the investigation that will be conducted by Motau is to establish whether:
- Any of the business of VBS was conducted with the intent to defraud depositors or other creditors of the bank, or for any other fraudulent purpose
- VBS’s business conduct involved questionable and/or reckless business practices or material non-disclosure, with or without the intent to defraud depositors and other creditors
- There had been any irregular conduct by VBS’s shareholders, directors, executive management, staff, stakeholders and/or related parties.
This comes just after yesterday when KPMG suspended Sipho Malaba, the head of financial services auditing, which is one of their biggest units. Malaba's appointment was announced in October last year, along with their new executive team.
Malaba was tasked with being the lead independent audit partner on VBS Mutual Bank, which has now been placed under curatorship.
The SA Reserve Bank (SARB) said in a report that R900 million of the bank’s deposits of R2.9 billion cannot be effectively confirmed.
The shocking fact is that VBS only has liquid assets of R24 million, according to the report.
VBS is accused manipulating its own financial information.