Mthatha Specialised Commercial Crime court released Philasande Bongani Ntshantsha (43), the former estate controller at Master’s office and Mkhuseli Ndamase (42), an attorney and his law firm on R5000 bail each on August 6.
According to Hawks spokesperson, Warrant-Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana, their appearance came after they were arrested by the Mthatha Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team of the Hawks on allegations of fraud and corruption.
He said it is alleged that the victim was involved in an accident where he lodged a claim against the Road Accident Fund (RAF) through Polo Attorneys.
“In 2022 the victim reportedly passed away while the cash was still held in attorneys trust account.
“It is further reported that the mother of the victim was advised by the Master’s office to appoint an attorney to handle the administration of estate process for the deceased’s children.
“On 6 October 2023, the reports indicated that the complainant approached Ndamase’s Attorneys for assistance,” he reported.
According to Mhlakuvana, the law firm was reportedly ordered by the Master’s office to comply with some compulsory requirements in order to receive a letter of Executorship, but they failed to comply.
“Subsequent to that, Ndamase and Ntshantsha allegedly colluded in formulating a manually generated letter of Executorship which in normal situations is computer generated.
“During auditing, the Master’s office picked up some discrepancies in the letter.
“The matter was reported to the Hawks for probing,” he added.
Mhlakuvana revealed that the investigations by the Hawks established that Ntshantsha who reportedly resigned appended the official date stamp and forged the signature of the assistant Master, then delivered the letter to Ndamase’s home for gratification of R4000.
He further added, “Thorough investigation also divulged that the letter of Executorship was fraudulent.
“Thereafter, his law firm opened a bank account where they demanded the deceased’s cash from Polo Attorneys’ trust fund with a fraudulent letter of Executorship, and it was repudiated.
“The complainant was nearly prejudiced to a cash amount of over R1 million.”
“That led to the arrest of the suspects on August 6 and they appeared before the Mthatha Specialised Commercial Crime Court on the same day as their arrest, then were released on R5000 bail each.
“The matter was remanded to October 10 to set a trial date.”
