Law enforcement agents in South Africa and Lesotho are yet to effect arrests to complement the breakthrough to recover assets and millions of rands that an organised crime syndicate defrauded the Lesotho government of. Deemed as the proceeds of crime, the assets and money were handed over to Lesotho government authorities on Friday, 3 November, in Bloemfontein.
Lt. Col Zweli Mohobeleli, provincial spokesperson for the Hawks, said arrests were imminent with the ongoing investigation into the multimillion rand fraud scheme.
He said, thus far, R28 million has been recovered. He added that on Friday, R5 million in cash, three properties with a combined worth of R2 million, and three luxury vehicles (an Audi A5, Golf 6, and BMW X1) were returned to Lesotho. The properties are two townhouses and a stand-alone house worth R1 million.
“The assets were purchased with R57 million of the Lesotho government,” said Mohobeleli. He said preliminary probing discovered that several persons, in South Africa and within the Lesotho government, collaborated to siphon large sums of money.
“They made misrepresentations which resulted in the Central Bank of Lesotho (CBL) being defrauded. The monies were put in different South African banks,” said Mohobeleli.
He said intensive probing came after the Lesotho authorities alerted agencies in South Africa, culminating with preservation and forfeiture orders to seize all the proceeds of the crime from the prime suspects.
Mohobeleli said the breakthrough to recover monies and assets is the result of a collaboration of South African and Lesotho law enforcement agencies.
These include South Africa’s Asset Forfeiture unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), and Financial Intelligence Centre, and Lesotho’s Mounted Police Service and Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offenses (DCEO).
