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Two former South African Revenue Service (SARS) auditors have been arrested for alleged tax evasion worth approximately R321 million.
The Johannesburg Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team made the arrests on Tuesday.
The 39-year-old Corah Madlepollo Kooko and the 45-year-old Noluthando Sipokazi Mbanga as well as their "runner", 44-year-old Mndolozi Mncube have been charged for tax fraud in contravention of the Value Added Tax Act, as well as Customs and Excise Act.
The latter had an actual loss of over R277 million.
Police have already recovered an amount of R44 million following a thorough investigation in conjunction with SARS.
According to the Hawks, SARS investigators identified extensive VAT fraud within the small and medium enterprises sectors.
Hawks spokesperson Captain Lloyd Ramovha says the fraud related to the claiming of undue VAT refunds from SARS and money laundering pertaining to these companies and their directors working in cahoots.
He said the Hawks investigation uncovered that the syndicate involves more than twenty individuals and various companies.
“Taxpayers, runners, SARS current and former employees, as well as bank employees were also caught up in the web of deceit. Most of the fraudulent invoices were uploaded from the SARS branch in Randfontein where some of the implicated suspects were based,” he said.
The Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crime Court granted the trio R10 000 bail each and the case was postponed to 13 July 2021 pending further investigation.
