A 68-year-old man appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrate court for allegedly colluding with his daughter to defraud the South African Revenue Services (Sars), the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (known as the Hawks) said.
Sigegede Aaron Mathebula’s appearance follows his arrest on Tuesday.
Mpumalanga Hawks spokesperson, Captain Dineo Sekgotodi, said Mathebula is accused alongside his daughter, Silindile Pearl Mathebula, 42, and her company, MPM Shutterhands Construction as well as Bongani Mkhatshwa, 41.
Sekgotodi said Silindile Mathebula and Mkhatshwa were arrested last month and appeared in court on September 9.
She explained that the charges emanate from incidents that occurred during 2015 to 2017 when Mathebula and his daughter were registered as directors for MPM Shutterhands Construction.
“The company, MPM Shutterhands Construction, referred to as accused number one, registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) and Sars for income tax purposes,” said Sekgotodi.
“Its alleged that the directors of the company colluded with Mkhatshwa, referred to as accused number who submitted fraudulent tax returns to Sars.”
Sekgotodi said through the misrepresentation, they allegedly claimed R990, 000 from Sars and shared the proceeds amongst themselves.
“They had further claimed R5.3 million but was never paid by Sars.”
Silindile and Mkhatshwa were released on R2,000 bail each while Mathebula was released on R1,000.
The trio are expected to appear in court again on November 13, 2024.
In another matter, two Johannesburg siblings, Nishani Singh, 51, and Rushil Singh, 40, were arrested for fraud, forgery, and uttering.
The duo recently appeared before the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court facing charges of R150 million fraud.
“It is alleged that during the period of January 2021 to March 2023, the pair, directors of Big Business Innovations Group (Pty) Ltd fraudulently submitted false Stanbic guarantees when they applied for working capital facility of R35 million,” said Gauteng Hawks spokesperson, Captain Lloyd Ramovha.
Ramovha said they additionally applied for a loan agreement of over R150 million on April 2021.
“Consequently, when they exhausted the working capital facility and breached the term loan agreement, Investec Bank demanded guarantees from Stanbic. It was then established that the two guarantees were obtained fraudulently. As a result, Stanbic suffered an actual loss of over R150 million,” said Ramovha.
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