Assets of transport company's bosses frozen

Published Jul 25, 2005

Share

Assets belonging to the former managing director and financial manager of a Durban container transport business, accused of cheating the company out of more than R5-million, have been "frozen" pending the outcome of their criminal trial.

The assets include luxury vehicles, household goods, houses, bank accounts and company shares belonging to the former MD of Railroad Africa, Soobramoney Naidoo, of La Lucia, and its financial manager, Monoranji Govender, of Merebank.

The order was brought by Kenneth Samuel, deputy director of public prosecutions in Durban's Asset Forfeiture Unit, before Durban High Court Judge Gregory Kruger last week and also affects Naidoo's wife, Rumba Naidoo, and a company she owns, South African Inland Logistics (Sail).

The order authorised the court-appointed curator, Camilla Singh of KPMG, to preserve the assets, ensuring they are not disposed of until after the three have been tried in Durban's Commercial Crime Court in November this year.

They have until September to oppose the order. In an affidavit before the judge, private investigator Aubrey Slinger - who assisted police with the investigation - said Railroad Africa's primary business was a Spoornet contract to move containers.

The company did not own a fleet of vehicles, instead sub-contracting the business to other companies. It kept a check on its business operations through a computer system.

Naidoo was responsible for the day-to-day functioning of the business and signing the cheques while Govender was also a signatory.

Rumba Naidoo was a 100 percent shareholder in Sail, which was one of Railroad Africa's sub-contractors.

Slinger alleged that along with K C Archary, another employee of Railroad Africa, the three "colluded to devise various schemes" to defraud the company.

Among the crimes they are alleged to have committed are:

- The creation of duplicate invoices in favour of Sail for services rendered by other subcontractors.

- The creation of entirely fictitious invoices in favour of Sail and the duplication of payments to the company.

- The use of money and assets of Railroad Africa for their own goods and services.

- The misappropriation of company funds.

- The payment by Railroad Africa for the repair of vehicles belonging to Sail.

- Paying themselves cash cheques which were disguised as payments to other creditors.

In total, they stood accused of 695 counts of fraud and theft involving just less than R5,1-million, Slinger said. The crimes had allegedly been covered up by manipulating the company's computer system.

He said evidence of their crimes was contained in about 100 files containing 49 000 pages of company records.

Should the three be convicted of the crimes, an application will be made for the confiscation of the assets.

Related Topics: