A former FNB bank employee has been found guilty of stealing R400,000 from a client’s bank account.
Mzwakhe Khumalo, 33, was found guilty by the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Monday.
In addition to fraud, Khumalo was found guilty of the Prevention of Organised Crime act (POCA) 121 of 1998 and two counts of contravention of the of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002.
Khumalo’s co-accused Lwando Dingiswayo pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced in March last year.
Explaining the merits of the case, the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation (known as Hawks), said between the period of December 2017 and March 2018, an investment account of a German national was accessed by two bank employees.
“The contact information of the account holder was changed, the existing signing authority on the account was cancelled and a new signing authority on the account was granted to another person who was part of the syndicate,” said Eastern Cape Hawks spokesperson Yolisa Mgolodela.
“This person then transferred funds from the complainant’s investment account to his cheque account and attempted to withdraw money from the cheque account.
“When this was unsuccessful, a hold was placed on the cheque account.”
Mgolodela said another member of the syndicate transferred the balance of the money in the account to another account opened with fraudulent documentation.
“An amount of R400,000.00 was successfully withdrawn before the account was frozen by the bank.”
She said the German national was not in South Africa during this time.
“His account was accessed by two bank officials on various occasions without authorisation from the client.”
Mgolodela said during the investigation it was revealed that the syndicate members could not have been able to obtain the information and access the account without the assistance of the two bank officials.
“On his return from Germany, the client made a shocking discovery of R400,000.00 missing from his investment account and immediately lodged a complaint in March 2018.”
She said investigations also revealed that the complainant suffered a potential loss of more than R4.8 million should further transactions not intercepted.
Khumalo and Dingiswayo were arrested on September 2021 and released on a warning.
and were released by Gqeberha New Law Regional court 8 on a warning.
Dingiswayo pleaded guilty and was sentenced on March 23, 2023 and was sentenced to five years in jail, while Khumalo’s sentencing has been postponed for April 29.
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