Four men who allegedly defrauded Absa of R15,4-million last year handed themselves over at the Johannesburg Central police station on Friday, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said.
Ismail Ganchi, his son Fakir, Mohammed Munshi and his brother Ahmed appeared in the Johannesburg Regional Court on Friday morning.
They allegedly defrauded Absa in April last year by operating a ”crossfire” or ”kite-flying” scheme.
The asset forfeiture unit (AFU) of the NPA on Friday froze 51 bank accounts belonging to the four men and seized four residential properties, including a number of luxury household items, 26 vehicles and trucks.
A restraining order obtained by the AFU on November 30 extends to all their associated companies and includes Fakir Ganchi’s wife, Ayshabibi Ganchi.
Scorpions’ investigators said it was clear all business and bank-account dealings were done by Ismail Ganchi, who set up a company account at Absa in the name of Sweet Junxion, designating Fakir’s wife as the director and shareholder of the company.
The four allegedly conspired to operate a ”crossfire” scheme between the business accounts of Ganchi’s Manufacturing Industries and PWV Marketing and Trade Services, owned by Mohammed and Ahmed Munshi, and the Sweet Junxion account.
PWV Marketing and Trade and Ganchi’s Manufacturing Industries would deposit cheques into the Sweet Junxion bank account.
Ismail would ask a bank official to lift the ”holds” on the cheques and then, using the internet banking facility, would transfer the same amount back to the accounts from which it originated.
The amounts increased until April last year when the scheme was stopped and Absa was left with an actual loss of R15,4-million.
Forensic auditors calculated that the total amount of no-value cheques deposited into the Sweet Junxion account between December 2003 and April 2004 amounted to approximately R224-million.
The total amount of transfers between the accounts amounted to approximately R229-million. Investigators said this was indicative of the size of the alleged ”crossfire” scheme. — Sapa