A businessman from East London, accused of defrauding the South African Revenue Services (Sars) of millions of rand, was being sought for allegedly absconding from court appearances.
The Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation (known as the Hawks) arrested 31-year-old Kholekile Ntlabathi on Thursday.
Ntlabathi is a sole director for three business entities which are Intelligence Build Enterprise, Elbowing group and Lungisa Construction.
According to Eastern Cape Hawks spokesperson, Warrant Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana it is alleged that Ntlabathi and his companies allegedly unlawfully, falsely submitted tax returns to Sars for the period between 2018 and 2021.
“Further allegations indicates that the suspect’s intentions was to defraud Sars by submitting those returns on behalf of his business entities.
“According to the reports, the allegations exposed that Ntlabathi submitted those fraudulent returns pretending to be a true reflection of the business tax returns for that period.
“After tax returns submission, Sars conducted its internal auditing and picked up some discrepancies later after the payment was made.”
Mhlakuvana said the investigation revealed that Sars was actually prejudiced a cash to an amount of R4 million.
Ntlabathi was arrested on April 25,2022, appeared in court the same day and was released on R10,000 bail.
“He then reportedly absconded all his court appearances.Due to his court abscondment a warrant of arrest was issued against him.”
Ntlabathi appeared in the East London Regional and has been released on a warning.
“He was ordered by the court to appear in court on April 5 for a trial date to be set,“ said Mhlakuvana.
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