Cape Town - A couple accused of defrauding established wine company Douglas Green of about R10 million and then spending some of the proceeds on home renovations and school fees is expected to go on trial next week.
Jacobus du Toit Terblanche and his wife Cornelia le Roux Terblanche, who both used to work for Douglas Green Bellingham (Pty) Limited (DGB), are expected to plead and go on trial in the Commercial Crimes Court in Bellville on Monday.
Collectively they face 54 counts.
According to court papers, DGB produced, distributed and imported wine and spirits in South Africa.
It also sold locally produced wine and acted as an agent for other wine estates.
The court papers said about 35 percent of DGB’s business dealt with the export of wine and “exports are directed at approximately 50 countries worldwide”.
It said Du Toit Terblanche had been a director of DGB’s board and in charge of international export operations, while his wife was an accounts executive in DGB’s export division.
She was also the only member of Taster Wines cc and Fine Cape Wine Exporters cc - the principal business of which was the export or import of wines.
The paper said 13 years ago an account had been opened for an entity, Bacco Trading, which had an address in Italy.
However, Bacco was never listed as a company in Italy, nor was it registered as a company in South Africa.
Terblanche, in charge of international export operations, approved the opening of the Bacco account.
In August 2000 “a number of bulk wine sale transactions were processed through Bacco Trading’s account with DGB” and Terblanche had “reduced the price of the wine Bacco Trading was purchasing from DGB”.”
Because Bacco Trading was viewed as a foreign entity and the wine was exported with this in mind, no Value Added Tax (VAT) was added to invoices issued to Bacco “as exports are zero-related for VAT purposes”.
The papers said Terblanche bought the wine from DGB using an account of Taster Wines cc and the wine was then sold to customers who paid into the Taster Wines cc account.
“The accused created Bacco Trading as part of the scheme to launder the proceeds of fraud by disguising the source of funds received,” it said.
The papers said the accused used the proceeds of fraud for: home loans, their personal bank accounts, credit cards, home renovations, school fees, suppliers and creditors.
They had led customers to believe Taster Wines cc was part of DGB - “a reputable company with years of experience”.
It said the couple diverted orders for wine by DGB customers to Cornelia Terblanche or one of the closed corporations.
The couple then purchased the wine from other suppliers, not DGB, and sold it.
Customers made payments into one of the closed corporations bank accounts.
Cape Times