The last remaining member of a syndicate that defrauded the SA Revenue Service of 26 million rand over a seven year period, has been jailed for 30 years.
SARS said in a statement Friday that Andries Seoketso was sentenced in the North Gauteng High Court this week.
He was sentenced to 15 years for 15 years imprisonment for fraud and 15 years for contraventions of The Proceeds of Crime Act.
SARS says the sentences will run be served concurrently.
“Mr Seoketso now joins fifteen other syndicate members who were sentenced in 2014 to a combined 279 years' imprisonment on charges of racketeering, money laundering and fraud. Some of these sentences also run concurrently,” the Sars statement said.
Sars said “the syndicate offered jobs to unemployed residents in Mamelodi and Soshanguve in return for copies of their identity documents, which were used to ‘register’ the victims as taxpayers.”
“Fraudulent IRP5 certificates were then produced indicating that their “employers” had deducted excessive tax from their salaries. This resulted in fraudulent tax “refunds” being paid out and channeled into members of the syndicate’s bank accounts.”
Syndicate members included former SARS employees Sydney Moyo, the mastermind of the scam, his wife Jane Moyo, and Richard Bopape. Moyo was sent to 15 years effective imprisonment, his wife to six years and Bopape to two years imprisonment.
