Alleged underworld figure Nafiz Modack along with family members appeared at the Cape Town Magistrates Court this week facing charges of fraud.
Alleged fraudsters Modack, his mother, Ruwaida Modack, his younger brother, Yaseen Modack and former South African Revenue Services employee, Faried van der Schyff along with Bashier Syce, Nadia Sait, Dominique McLachlan, Kulsum van der Schyff and Layla Bedderson are charged with racketeering, money laundering, fraud, forgery and uttering and contraventions of the Value Added Tax Act.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said Senior State Advocate Bronwen Hendricks-Sidaki told the court that the matter was postponed for the legal representatives of the accused to be able to print and study the further particulars that were forwarded to them and for them to take instructions.
“She offered that the State would be willing to assist the representatives where necessary. All the accused were in court except Nafiz Modack whose appearance was conducted via the video link from the prison where he is incarcerated. His legal representative, Advocate Dirk Uys told the court it was difficult for him to consult with his client who is incarcerated about two hours away in Helderstroom Prison. He advised the court that they had brought an application at the high court in order to have his client incarcerated closer,” said Ntabazalila.
The case was then postponed to July 7, 2022
Previously, the matter was postponed after Bedderson did not attend court as she missed her flight. A warrant for her arrest was held over while Hendricks’ newly-appointed attorney asked for a postponement from the previous appearance so he may “go though the docket copies”, Ntabazalila had previously said.
Ruwayda and Yaseen are currently out on bail of R50 000 each while Syce is out on R25 000 bail. Sait’s bail was set at R20 000 and McLachlan and van der Schyff had their bail set at R10 000 each.
Faried also remains in custody.
The co-accused were released with strict bail conditions which included that they must reside at addresses they supplied to the State, must inform the investigating officer in writing of any change of residential addresses and must hand over any travel documents or passports to the investigation officer immediately after their release on bail.
Investigations into the VAT fraud case showed that Sars had paid out more than R46m to the alleged fraudsters.
“Prosecutors from the Specialised Tax Unit allege that officials from the South African Revenue Services (Sars) Criminal Investigation Unit were tipped off that a number of corporate entities (25), which were registered as VAT vendors, were e-filing claims for significant VAT refunds. The scheme entailed the submission of false information via the e-filing system, initially on VAT returns and subsequently on documents which purported to substantiate the claims. The bi-monthly VAT201 returns of the entities were filed via e-filing. It appears that the aim of the scheme was to obtain VAT refunds from Sars, to which the entities were not entitled, and to dissipate the monies received.
“In some instances, Sars paid out the VAT refunds, either based on the initial VAT201 returns submitted or based on additional substantiating documentation provided. In other instances, the refunds were disallowed. Where VAT refunds were paid into the bank account of a particular VAT vendor, the monies were quickly transferred to various other bank accounts effectively concealing the source thereof,” Ntabazalila said.