Cash-in-transit heist robbers are using casinos to launder stolen money, South African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni told businessmen in Johannesburg on Thursday.
This was just one of the many issues that kept him awake at night, he said in reply to a question from businessman Cyril Ramaphosa at a business breakfast.
”We have to ensure that cash is available throughout the country, and so we have to move the cash in bulk from main production points to every part of the country,” Mboweni said.
”Thanks to the support of the South African Police Service and the [South African National] Defence Force we are able to distribute the cash, but with all these cash heists I get extremely worried.
”I’m always worried that I will receive a call from the head of security that something has happened.”
Even the Bank of England had recently been robbed, he pointed out.
”I have been working with the banking sector to ensure any cash that is stolen is not useable.”
This included using cash boxes fitted with devices to render the cash unusable.
These measures had been ”helpful” he said.
However, no sooner had a new method of preventing crime been devised than the ”thugs” found a way around it.
”We have, I think, generally done well to encircle them, but the casino companies are not helping us and I think it would be helpful if the casinos would come to the party.
”When these thugs have stolen the money and it has been inked they take it to any casino, go to the window, receive tokens, then go to another window to exchange these tokens for cash and [then get] out.
”The casinos end up with this cash that is not useable”.
Mboweni said the Reserve Bank was refusing to exchange this cash for ”real money”. – Sapa