Africa-Press – South-Africa. After a Gauteng businessman failed to attend court for a third time on Monday for his sentencing for fraud, the presiding magistrate ordered his immediate arrest.
This was after he assured his lawyer that he would attend the proceedings.
Karabo Phungula was convicted, in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court, sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court, of fraudulently obtaining the personal data of millions of South Africans. It was found that he had received a trove of personal and business data from data services firm, Experian, in 2020.
Phungula, the founder of Hi-Pixel Communications, was convicted in October last year.
He failed to appear in court for his sentencing on 14 February, citing ill health.
On 1 March, his lawyer was ill and did not attend court. The court heard that he had told his lawyer that he too would not attend the proceedings. As a result, Phungula’s R3 000 bail was forfeited to the State. A warrant was issued for his arrest.
But it was not executed after he assured his lawyer that he would attend proceedings on Monday.
However, when Monday morning came, Phungula was again absent, citing his child’s ill health.
This prompted the court to order Phungula’s immediate arrest.
In May 2020, Experian handed over the data of over 23 million people and nearly 800 000 businesses to Phungula, who impersonated a businessman who was authorised to have the information.
Experian detected the breach on 22 July, more than 50 days after the data had already been transferred.
According to the State, Experian received an enquiry from someone who identified himself as Tebogo Mogashoa on 4 May 2020.
“On 24 May 2020, ‘Mogashoa’ provided business details for Talis Holding (Pty) Ltd. He indicated he needed enriched data of approximately 23 452 535 consumer information and 727 000 business records.
“On 24 and 27 May 2020, ‘Mogashoa’ successfully logged onto Experian SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol)… downloaded consumer and business information, respectively.
“The credit bureau invoiced Talis-Holdings directly after “Mogashoa” stopped communicating with it.
“[An investigation] revealed that neither Talis Holdings nor Tebogo Mogashoa (who was employed at Talis Holdings as a CEO) had engaged Experian for its services,” according to the State.
The State submitted that Phungula had planned to sell the data for more than R4 million.
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
