CAPE TOWN - The bail application hearing for fraud accused Sars employee Faried van der Schyff has been postponed to later this week in the Cape Town Regional Court.
Van der Schyff is a co-accused with alleged underworld figure, Nafiz Modack, Ruwaida Modack, Yaseen Modack, Bashier Syce, Nadia Sait, Dominique McLachlan, Kulsum van der Schyff and Layla Bedderson. They all face charges of racketeering, fraud, money laundering, forgery and uttering and contraventions of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Act after they defrauded Sars to the tune of R46 million.
Van der Schyff’s bail hearing was rolled over to Friday for continuation of proceedings.
Prosecutors from the Specialised Tax Unit allege that officials from the Sars Criminal Investigation Unit were tipped off that 25 corporate entities, which were registered as VAT vendors, were e-filing fraudulent claims for significant VAT refunds.
“The scheme entailed the submission of false information via the e-filing system, initially on VAT returns and subsequently on documents which purported to substantiate the claims. The bi-monthly VAT201 returns of the entities were filed via e-filing. It appears that the aim of the scheme was to obtain VAT refunds from Sars, to which the entities were not entitled, and to dissipate the monies received...An investigation conducted by the Sars Criminal Investigations Unit and members of the South African Police Services using the Prosecutor Guided Investigations (PGI) approach, yielded positive results as it revealed that Sars paid out more than R46 million to the fraudsters.
“The cooperative approach also exposed that there was a potential loss of R219 million to Sars. Fortunately, the revenue services had not yet paid out the fraudulently claimed amount,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, had previously said.
Modack’s mother, Ruwaida and brother, Yaseen are currently out on bail of R50 000 each, while Syce was released on R25 000. Sait’s bail was set at R20 000 and McLachlan and Kulsum van der Schyff had their bail set at R10 000 each, while Johannesburg-based accused Bedderson is also out on R500 bail.
Cape Times