Cape Town - Nearly 10 cases involving women in prominent positions such as attorneys, real estate agents and accountants, have been heard inside the Commercial Crime Courts across the Western Cape and Eastern Cape between July and September.
The charges range from murder, fraud, theft and money-laundering.
Last week, The Hawks netted their biggest prize when Estelle Shereldine Burgess, 63, who worked as a creditor’s clerk, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars for 972 counts of fraud relating to the amount of R13.4 million.
Hawks’ Captain Yolisa Mgolodela said Burgess had misappropriated funds from the company where she prepared payments to creditors and invoices and transferred it into bank accounts where she was the beneficiary.
“It is reported that Burgess in her capacity as creditor’s clerk at Eastern Cape Training Centre (ECT), Gqeberha, during the period between 2004 and 2014 misappropriated funds of the company in that she prepared payments to the creditors and, thus submitting such invoices to the financial manager for payment on their Standard Bank system.
“Burgess purported that the banking details were those of the creditors, however the payments were transferred into various bank accounts of which she was the beneficiary amounting to R13.4 milllion,” said Mgolodela.
“Upon discovering some discrepancies and decline in revenue, ECT lodged a complaint with Gqeberha Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team for probing, which culminated in her arrest on 29 January 2019.“
The South African Banking Risk Information Centre’s, Louise van der Merwe, said they could not comment on individual cases but could only act in a capacity of awareness, involving money-laundering.
“Allowing proceeds of crime to be laundered through your bank account, knowingly or unknowingly, is a criminal offence. Bank clients can be charged and convicted for money-laundering and even receive a prison sentence.
“Criminals approach bank customers with requests to have funds paid into their accounts and often offer them a reward for the use of the account.
“An example of the above modus operandi is where the criminal informs the account holder of the sale of a motor vehicle and instructs the buyer to specifically pay into an account with a particular bank (the same bank as the one that the victim banks with) so that the funds can be cleared faster.
“Because the “seller” needs the money urgently, the use of the victim’s account is requested, and the victim is promised a reward for the favour.
“To most people, the explanation given appears to make sense, and the promised reward serves as a motivation, making them likely to assist, especially if the “seller” is known to them.
“Criminals also approach people with valid identification documents and ask them to open accounts for them to transact on because they do not have the correct documentation to qualify for an account.
“Because foreign nationals experience such difficulties and people want to be neighbourly, many people have been tricked into opening accounts that are subsequently used by criminals to launder money.”
Spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority Eric Ntabazalila, confirmed they had made a huge success in the case of Western Cape attorney, Anita Arendse, who had faced fraud charges and theft relating to the misappropriation of trust funds by an attorney.
Arendse is alleged to have misappropriated money which was deposited into her trust account to buy property from the Estate of a deceased person but she never transferred the property to the buyer or paid her the money in cash involving hundreds of thousands of rands.
“The complainant claimed her losses from the Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund. The case has been postponed to September 7 for the outcome of representations.
“The firm was insured by the fund for any theft or misappropriation of trust funds.
“A claim was lodged against the fund for theft or misappropriation of funds in the sum of R129 000 by Ms Abrahams. She bought a property from the Estate of Late GR Sampson in the sum of R165 000.
“The firm was instructed by Ms Abrahams to transfer the property into her name on November 1, 2005.
“During 2007, the firm wrote to Ms Abrahams that the property’s purchase price was reduced to R125 000, therefore paid back her the sum of R36 000.
“Ever since the payment of R 36 000 by the firm to Ms Abrahams, no property transfer took place nor did Ms Abrahams receive the remainder of her money. Instead Ms Abrahams received a letter from the firm that the accused’s law firm has ceased to operate. This prompted Ms Abrahams to lodge a claim with the fund, and the latter reimburse her the sum of R129 000 for loss suffered in the hands of the firm,” Ntabazalila said.
Kristina Adler, 46, and Jens Leunberg 44, were sentenced by Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crime Court on August 13 for charges of murder and fraud.
The State proved they approached a family and were interested in buying their farm, Owvanuk and three others, amounting to over R62m.
Adler and Leunberg presented false bank statements and the victim was lured to the farm by the couple on August 14, 2009 where he was murdered. They were convicted of two counts of fraud and another of murder. Adler was given a 10-year sentence and Leunberg 25 years.
Michael Sass, 57, chief financial officer at the National Health Laboratories Services and Felicia Sekete, 32 , a director at Feliham appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crimes sitting in Palm Ridge (Eastern Cape) on August 16.
Sekete and Sass appeared on charges relating to the multimillion personal protective equipment tender at the National Health Laboratories Services. The pair was arrested on the morning of August 15 by the Hawks. Their case was postponed to October 5 for further investigation after they were granted R 20 000 bail each.
A 49-year-old woman appeared at the Mossel Bay Regional Court on August 23 for allegations of theft and money-laundering. The State is set to prove that between April 2015 to July 2016 the she stole over R477 430 from the golf club in Mossel Bay, where she worked as an accountant. It’s alleged she took the money from the safe at work and blew it on slot machines and apparently made a total of 21 deposits into her personal account.
A 39-year-old woman appeared at the Bellville Commercial Crime Court for 430 counts of fraud and one of theft and two of the Electronic Communications and Transaction (ECT) Act on August 25. The State alleges the woman defrauded three companies of R1.9m where she worked as a finance and practice manager and did bookkeeping.