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Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Gqeberha: Two additional suspects in court for submitting fraudulent VAT returns

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EASTERN CAPE – The Gqeberha based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation of the Hawks in partnership with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) ensured Telela Stella Nqeto (45) and Nathaniel Kofi Kwei-Smith (46) one of the directors of Three Architects PTY, LTD appeared before the Gqeberha New Law court on 2 May 2024 for allegations of fraud.

Their co-accused Bandile Brian Boyana (50) the director, Aubrey Mokgobi Moeng (44) the Accountant consultant at Three Architects PTY, LTD were arrested on 18 March 2024 and 8 April 2024 respectively. They were later released on R5000 bail each, therefore, Boyana had to pay a total of R10 000 bail, in respect of the company.

It is alleged that during the period between November 2015 and July 2021, Nqeto and Kwei-Smith and other accused intentionally submitted fraudulent Value Added Tax (VAT) 201 returns to SARS on behalf of their business entity. Subsequent to that, SARS conducted its internal assessment and picked up discrepancies in the returns submitted for the financial years in question. However, the reports indicated that some of the returns were repudiated by SARS and some were paid to the accused. The matter was reported to the Gqeberha SCCI of the Hawks for intensive investigation.

The Hawks investigation revealed that SARS suffered an actually loss of over R3 million and a potential prejudice of an amount of over R8.2 million was nearly suffered in refund to their business entity.

The duo was ultimately arrested by the investigating team of the Hawks on 2 May 2024 and they made their first court appearance before Gqeberha New Law court. Kwei-Smith was thus released on R5 000 bail and Nqeto R2000 bail.

The matter was then remanded to 22 May 2024 for the accused to join other co-accused.

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