GAUTENG – A 45-year-old Optometrist and his company is expected to appear before the Pretoria Commercial Crime Court on 24 November 2023 for contravention of section 4(b) (i) of Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA) money laundering and fraud after the Pretoria Hawks’ based Commercial Crime Investigation after being served with a court summons on 13 November 2023.
It is alleged that during the periods 2015 to the beginning of 2020, the former deputy director under employee health and wellness programme and the suspect had devised and engaged in a fraudulent scheme to defraud the Department of Employment & Labour an amount of over R2 million. The scheme was conducted through fraudulent submission of invoices by the former deputy director which caused the Department to pay employee health and wellness services rendered though the suspect’s company for services never rendered.
In addition, the former deputy director used business records of the suspect’s company to conclude irregular contracts including generating and submitting fraudulent invoices to the Department. Some invoices included names of the employees throughout the country and others were fictitious names. The employees denied ever receiving the services from the suspect’s company. Payments of the fraudulent invoices shared by the pair.
Content retrieved from: https://www.saps.gov.za/newsroom/msspeechdetail.php?nid=49646.