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The Hawks said six people appeared in court on Wednesday following a major breakthrough in a “sophisticated” fraud case targeting Standard Bank.
Spokesperson, Captain Lloyd Ramovha, said the suspects were arrested on Monday in the so-called Mukuru fraud case.
He said Dikeledi Mosia (40), Jeana Mokoena (32), Daphne Dieketseng Modise (33), Tsietsi Shadrack Msimanga (28), Mongezi Dennis Malindi (32) and Reuben Allister Beeby (27), were remanded in custody until next Tuesday.
Ramovha said the arrests followed an investigation into multiple counts of fraud in a case that was registered at Johannesburg Central police station in March 2022.
“During October 2021, Standard Bank was alerted to several suspicious transactions processed on six business accounts linked to entities affiliated with Mukuru Group (Pty) Ltd.
“The investigation uncovered that the suspects executed a fraudulent Business Online Legacy profile takeover.
“By fraudulently performing SIM swaps with the users' mobile service providers, they facilitated unauthorized transactions amounting to R18,123,496.00,” he said.
Ramovha said the scheme involved a series of strategic moves to bypass security measures and exploit vulnerabilities within the banking system.
“These fraudulent activities caused significant financial losses and posed a severe threat to the integrity of digital banking operations”.
Ramovha said more arrests are expected.
