The 37-year-old Pillay and 42-year-old Patel appeared in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court, facing fraud and money laundering charges. The Hawks said they traced and arrested Pillay at her home in Sandton on Tuesday, while Patel handed herself over to police on Wednesday. The latest action followed the arrests of Adriaan Pillay and Mohamed Adamjee for alleged fraud and corruption during their tenure at Cell C. It is alleged that between 2012 and 2019, Techno Genius Director Adriaan Pillay and Adamjee, who was a Cell C executive, colluded and inflated rates for IT and network services required by Cell C. According to the South African Police Service (SAPS), the fraud resulted in a loss of over R130 million to Cell C. Further investigation revealed that Patel allegedly colluded and inflated rates for Cell C’s IT and network services. The conspiracy and fraud happened while she worked as an administrator at Techno Genius during the same period. Michelle Pillay reportedly received approximately R3 million into her bank account as proceeds of crime.

Adamjee was employed by Cell C from January 2002 until 7 May 2020. From September 2011, he was a business operations support executive involved in IT-related procurement. Pillay served under Adamjee at Cell C until July 2014, when he resigned after disciplinary proceedings were pending against him. Cell C said it discovered collusion between Adamjee and Pillay in March 2020 via the procurement of IT goods and services through two entities — Cornastone and Techno Genius. Cornastone was a Cell C vendor since 2012 and supplied the mobile operator with goods and services. Cell C said it discovered in March 2020 that whenever it had paid Cornastone for goods or services, the vendor would pay a portion of this payment to Techno Genius and Pillay. The portion paid to Techno Genius and Pillay reflected the amount by which the invoice to Cell C had been significantly inflated. Cell C said Adamjee was tasked with considering quotes from vendors for IT procurement and that he used his position to ensure Cornastone’s quotes were regularly chosen. “Through Adamjee’s influence, Cell C would contract with Cornastone as its’ preferred supplier’ for the required IT goods and services, not knowing that Cornastone’s quotes are exaggerated,” it said. Throughout this period, Pillay was the sole director of Techno Genius, and he and Adamjee also held a co-50% beneficial ownership of a company called House and Home Refurbishments. Cell C believes Adamjee received part of the excessive amounts paid to Techno Genius and Pillay over the eight years. Hawks spokesperson Captain Ndivhuwo Mulamu said the case was postponed to 16 February 2022 for docket disclosure. The recently arrested Michelle Pillay and Khatiya Patel will be joining their husbands, Adriaan Pillay and Mohamed Ismail Adamjee, and their co-accused, Manuel Reimaldo Teixeira and Lufuno Lesly Nevhutalu.