South Africa’s Directorate of Special Operations — the Scorpions — on Friday arrested three directors of medical-supplies company Macmed Health Care in one of South Africa’s largest fraud and corruption cases.
A Scorpions spokesperson confirmed that Donald McArthur, Alan Hiscock and Lloyd Hanson appeared in court in Pretoria on Friday on charges of fraud, corruption and the contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
They did not plead and were each granted R500 000 bail. They are due to appear in court again on December 8.
Macmed was listed on the JSE and subsequently liquidated in October 1999. Thereafter, several of its 96 subsidiaries followed.
Macmed and its subsidiaries operated within the pharmaceutical and medical industries of the health sector of the economy.
The broad spectrum of Macmed business included the manufacturing and distribution of medical consumable products, hospital and medical equipment and the financing of such equipment to hospitals and doctors. It also built four hospitals and owned substantial equity interests in companies in Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Zambia that conducted business in the same areas.
Evidence gathered indicates that all major banks in South Africa offered Macmed loans totalling R1-billion. The members were allegedly rewarded with huge payouts, the Scorpions said.
After the R1-billion was spent, the members of Macmed approached certain banks for additional finance and during this process, the demise of Macmed was discovered through the creation of false transactions that were included in their annual financial statements presented to the banks in their loan applications, the Scorpions added. — I-Net Bridge