Sowetan Live reports that state prosecutors revealed further details of how the former MTN junior accountant allegedly pilfered R7.6 million a year from the mobile operator. The accused, Ruth Moshabane, allegedly transferred money from MTN’s bank accounts to her own under the premise that she was paying for services to be provided by Mutual and Federal, and Guardrisk Insurance. Moshabane had access to 76 MTN bank accounts used to pay its vendors. She pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.
The indictment submitted to the specialised commercial crimes court in Palm Ridge, Ekurhuleni, alleges that Moshabane first transferred R60,000 on 13 December 2010 and an additional R42,500 two days later. In January 2011, she transferred R117,000 to herself but kicked things up a gear the following month, with her transactions jumping to more than R577,000. The fraudulent transactions only increased from there. A breakdown of the larger transactions is listed below:
- Three transactions in August 2011 totalling R600,000
- Transactions totalling R869,000 in May 2012
- R1.6 million worth of transactions in May 2013
- R2 million was transferred in November 2013
- Two R1.6 million transactions in September 2015
From then on, Moshabane allegedly continued to steal around R1.5 million each month on average for over a year. Moshabane’s run of fraudulent transactions ended in April 2017 when Standard Bank notified MTN of the unusual transactions. She was arrested on 11 April 2017. She first appeared in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday, 25 April 2017, having initially been accused of defrauding MTN of over R23 million. She faced 16 counts of fraud which is a schedule five offence, prosecutor Bongani Chauke told the court. “The company entrusted her with the powers and authority…within the company’s banking systems,” Chauke said.
“The accused was not authorised to make monetary transfers from the account of the company to her outside bank.” According to Chauke, Moshabane managed to transfer the funds to herself through “fictitious requisitions and [the] money was paid because she used the people who were supposed to sign a first signature and second signature to release the funds”. He added that MTN believed the transactions were lawfully authorised as they trusted Moshabane. Chauke said Moshabane had five properties registered in her name at the time of her arrest and that investigations were underway to determine whether she owned more. In February 2019, MTN said it would pursue compensation from Moshabane for the stolen funds, including interest and legal costs.
