Probe into BancABC 'stolen' millions complete
Mpho Mokwape | Friday February 14, 2020 16:15
The case went before the Broadhurst Magistrate’s Court today and following revelations about the investigations one of the defence attorneys, Tebogo Tladi, requested that they be furnished with witnesses’ statements and all material in preparation for the trial.
“We have been told that investigations are complete and we request that we be given witness(es)’ statements. For now we will not comment on the charge sheet, we will wait for the review from prosecution first,” he said.
Also Unoda Mack representing one of the accused told court that he has raised concerns about the charge sheet, which the prosecution agreed that they would review it to address his concerns and update court at the next status hearing.
Meanwhile, the accused persons, Trevor Boiteto, Omphemetse Kedikilwe and Mooketsi Kedikilwe, have been charged with money laundering and cyber fraud. They are accused of defrauding the bank of over P20 million.
The trio was initially charged with theft contrary to section 264 read with section 271 of the Penal Code after they were accused of acting together to steal $2,064,239.49
(about P20 million) belonging to BancABC.
The trio will take their plea on the next mention scheduled for March 17, 2020.
According to the charge sheet, they face nine counts ranging from cyber fraud and money laundering including the companies they represent. In the nine counts, Boiteto who was the bank’s employee, will now face four counts of cyber fraud while also facing the money laundering charge with his co-accused and the companies. Particulars of the offence are that the trio in their own personal capacity together with a company, Waltord Holdings, represented by Omphemetse as its director and another one, Boldmark Engineering, represented by Mooketsi as its director between October 9, 2018 and January 10, 2019 acted together and stole the money from the bank.
In the court documents, seven bank accounts ranging from P4,140,337.09, R2, 620,719.49, P10,418.94, $277,148.99, P29,009.04, P158,883.17, P13,418.62 and three vehicles being Audi A3, Toyota Toyoace and Toyota Land Cruiser have all been seized.
According to the background of the case, BancABC had on February 12, 2019 performed reconciliation in their Treasury Department where officials were able to pick an anomaly showing that money had been removed from Citibank but without clear indication of where the money had been transferred.Further investigations were conducted and they revealed that one of the bank employees, Boiteto was involved with other people and companies.