Africa-Press – South-Africa. A man has been handed a suspended five-year sentence for his role in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal and ordered to pay back more than R460 000.
Keaobaka Remigious Kgatitsoe entered into a plea deal with the State after being charged with money laundering. He was among those arrested for the investment of municipal funds with the now broke VBS Mutual Bank.
At least 27 people have been arrested in the course of the investigation, including the Collins Chabane Municipality chief financial officer and municipal manager at the time.
The municipality invested R120 million of its money with VBS, despite it not being registered in terms of the Banks Act. The municipality never saw its money again.
VBS Mutual Bank saga: Another municipal official to appear in court
The money was stolen, and the books doctored to make it look like the bank was stable. The bank lost around R2.2 billion.
VBS Mutual Bank was declared bankrupt and the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria granted a final liquidation order against it on 13 November 2018.
Kgatitsoe, the owner of Kelotloko Property, was found to have assisted the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality’s chief financial officer to “submit fictitious invoices to VBS linked to the investments made by the municipality”, said Hawks spokesperson, Colonel Katlego Mogale.
Mogale said:
The Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sentenced Kgatitsoe to five years’ imprisonment, which was wholly suspended for five years. He was also ordered to pay back more than R460 000 to the liquidator of VBS.
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