Two siblings, Nishani Singh, 51, and Rushil Singh, 40, have been charged for fraud, forgery, and uttering by the Johannesburg-based Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks.
The duo appeared before the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crime Court facing charges of R150 million fraud, according to Gauteng spokesperson for the Hawks, Captain Lloyd Ramovha.
The matter emanates from a case that was registered at Sandton police station in March 2023 and allocated to the Hawks for investigation.
“It is alleged that during the period of January 2021 to March 2023, the pair, directors of Big Business Innovations Group (Pty) Ltd fraudulently submitted false Stanbic guarantees when they applied for working capital facility of R35 million,” said Ramovha.
They additionally applied for a loan agreement of over R150 million on April 2021.
“Consequently, when they exhausted the working capital facility and breached the term loan agreement, Investec Bank demanded guarantees from Stanbic. It was then established that the two guarantees were obtained fraudulently. As a result, Stanbic suffered an actual loss of over R150 million,” said Ramovha.
Rushil was arrested on Monday, while Nishani handed herself to the Hawks on Tuesday.
The bail application of the siblings is scheduled to continue on Wednesday. Both siblings remain in custody, pending the outcome of the bail hearing.
In April, IOL reported that the Witbank Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga had convicted and sentenced siblings Godfrey Thembikuhle Mgidi and Christina Ncazane Mgidi for defrauding the SA Revenue Service (Sars) of almost R1 million.
The duo was found guilty of fraud, contravening Section 234 of the Tax Administration Act, according to the Hawks in Mpumalanga.
During January 2015, both accused were directors of a company called Morvest Pinnacle Solutions.
“The accused submitted fraudulent tax returns for tax credits to the South African Revenue Service, claiming undue funds through misrepresentation whereby payments were made to the company's Standard Bank business account belonging to Siyophumelela Trading and Projects cc, prejudicing and causing an actual loss to the revenue service of R968,099,” said Hawks spokesperson in Mpumalanga, Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi.
The matter was reported to the Hawks’ Nelspruit-based serious commercial crime investigation unit for a thorough probe.
IOL