A witness has testified about an elaborate fraudulent scheme to defraud the country’s largest cellular operator, Vodacom, of millions of rands.
An ex-Vodacom employee, his wife, and two other suspects appeared at the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crime Court sitting in the Palm Ridge magistrate’s court on Tuesday.
The group is suspected of being part of a fraudulent scheme pertaining to R11 155 990 that went missing from Vodacom 10 years ago.
The accused appeared before magistrate Brian Nemavhidi, who took over the case this year after the previous magistrate retired due to age and health complications in 2023.
The group faces 71 charges
The three men and a woman face 71 charges of theft and five charges of money-laundering, respectively.
Peter Poonsammy, who was a business analyst for Vodacom, is accused of fraudulently registering Blaze Technology as a dealer with Vodacom.
Accounts bearing numbers B0158914 and B0166166 were allocated to Blaze Technology by Vodacom.
Poonsammy, who is accused number one, was arrested and released on R80 000 bail on July 25 2014. It is alleged that on the same day, he transferred R200 000 to his wife, Khemie Poonsammy, who is accused number two in the case.
On June 16 2014, Poonsammy bought a Mercedes-Benz W176 series for R740 327. He registered the car in Rajeen Gokulpersad’s name, who is accused number three, on August 1 2014.
An amount of R960 000 was paid into a Standard Bank account on August 1 2014, which belonged to Rajesh Dawchand, who is accused number four.
Poonsammy also made a second transaction to the Standard Bank access bond account on August 5 2014, of R200 000, which was in Poonsammy’s and Dawchand’s names.
Miss A takes the stand
Prosecutor Tilas Chabalala cross-examined Miss A on Tuesday, who was a principal specialist in product management in 2014.
She told the court that during April and May 2014, she was called to explain to senior leadership why the accusation and retention budget was left with unfavourable variants of R25-million.
Miss A detailed the procedures she took to connect the dots in the matter that implicated her former colleague.
She further said that she found three accounts on the system, all of which had a large cost.
“The first two accounts met the requirements. I could trace it back to the cash sent. The third account on the list belonged to Blaze Technology,” she said.
“There was no indication of a valid deal sheet for all the devices. I picked up that more than 50 devices were on various phone numbers.”
Accused not bothered by Miss A
Miss A explained to the court that this stunt was a red flag, as Vodacom does not issue more than 50 devices for one phone number.
During her testimony, the accused sat in the dock and took down the notes. With every word that Miss A said, they either looked at her or made contact with one another.
Nodding and shaking their heads at every word she said, the accused seemed rather unbothered and annoyed.
“I met with the warehouse manager after sending e-mails. I picked up that SIM cards left the warehouse but were not activated,” she testified.
Miss A confirmed that a total of 1 025 devices from April to May 2014 left the warehouse under Blaze Technology.
Authenticity of the documents
Chabalala requested that the court accept all the documents that Miss A has presented.
During the court proceedings, the lawyer for the accused, Rajen Naidoo, pleaded with the state to look at the authenticity of the documents.
“The state should not use this as evidence until the authenticity of it is verified,” said Naidoo.
Nemavhidi postponed the matter to Wednesday after Naidoo asked for time to consult with his clients.
