Mzilikazi wa Afrika
The Department of Justice has enlisted two of South Africa’s top special investigation teams to probe a well-organised national crime syndicate which has defrauded the department of more than R30-million over the past three years.
Confidential information leaked to the Mail & Guardian shows that 23 government officials, including police officers, court clerks and at least one magistrate, have been identified as key members of the syndicate.
Syndicate members allegedly steal and launder justice department cheques by duping innocent businesspeople into cashing them, and then threatening them with death and mutilation if they do not refund large portions of the money.
The intelligence co-ordinator of the commercial special investigation unit, Sergeant Jason Jordan, says none of the suspects has been arrested, but a special team of crack investigators has tracked them down in almost every province and are poised to nab them.
Jordan’s team and members of the Heath special investigative unit have also interviewed seven of the syndicate’s business stooges in East London, Jordan says.
“The suspects dress in expensive suits, drive luxury cars and introduce themselves as senior government officials, but they are dangerous thugs who won’t hesitate about getting dirty to get what they want,” he says.
The biggest single cheque stolen, for R4,3-million, was taken from the Ekangala Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga. It was cashed at the Trust Bank in East London on November 25 last year.
Minister of Justice Dullah Omar acted on the theft last week, after calling for Judge Willem Heath to work with the commercial investigative unit in tracking down the syndicate.
National Police Commissioner George Fivaz has also asked the Heath special investigative unit to investigate the theft of the R4,3-million.
The Ekangala scam was fronted by an expensively dressed man, who identified himself as Johannes Brightman to an East London businessman while offering to buy an office block for way above the market value.
The unnamed businessman reportedly jumped at the deal and sold the offices to Brightman through a local estate agent.
“The businessman, who now fears for his life, thought the deal was on behalf of the government and deposited the cheque with his bank. It was cleared immediately and suddenly the syndicate pounced, demanding all the money back at gunpoint,” says Jordan.
The suspects used false names, fraudulent identity documents and virtually untraceable pay-as-you-go cellular phones to close the deals.
Officials from the Department of Home Affairs confirmed this week that Johannes Brightman does not legally exist and neither does the identity number he used to sign the real-estate contract.
The Ekangala Magistrate’s Court has been hit twice by the syndicate, with a R750 000 cheque stolen in 1996.
That cheque, however, was cancelled by suspicious finance officials at the Department of Justice before it could be cashed. – African Eye News