CAPE TOWN - A 58-year-old man appeared in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Court for allegedly defrauding a 41-year-old businessman of R1.5 million, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, aka Hawks, said on Friday.
“Mthuthuzeli Swartz is expected to appear at the Port Elizabeth Magistrate Court [again] on February 27 for alleged fraud, and money laundering,” Hawks spokesperson Captain Anelisa Feni said in a statement.
Feni said that Swartz was arrested on Tuesday and taken to court the same day by the Hawk’s serious organised crime investigation following allegations that he and an accomplice defrauded a businessman.
She said the two misrepresented themselves as having authority to sell a Transnet railway line between Elliot and Maclear.
“Consequently, the businessman paid R1.5 million into the suspects’ bank account. However, the alleged victim never received the promised railway line in spite of the payment.”
Swartz was granted R2 000 bail and the search for the second accomplice continues, Hawks said.