Durban — The Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sentenced a man to 15 years’ imprisonment for running a Ponzi scheme.
Hawks spokesperson Captain Simphiwe Mhlongo said the court sentenced Yunus Moolla, 61, to 15 years’ direct imprisonment for multiple charges of fraud, contravention of the Bank Act, contravention of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Service Act as well as money laundering.
Mhlongo said that during the period 2013 to 2015, Moolla recruited people to invest in his company called Carmol Distributors. He claimed that his company was dealing in petrol and diesel. Moolla promised investors a monthly profit of 2 to 8%.
He said it was discovered that the company was not registered to operate as a financial service institution.
“A case of fraud was reported at the Durban North police station and a case docket was allocated to the Durban-based Hawks' Serious Commercial Crime Investigation for further investigation. Moolla was arrested in 2016 and he appeared in court several times until he was found guilty in November last year,” Mhlongo explained.
“He was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for more than 3 700 counts of fraud, five years’ imprisonment for more than 4 000 counts of contravention of the Bank Act, five years’ imprisonment for more than 3 700 counts of contravening of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Service Act. The sentence will run concurrently.”
“Moolla was further sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for 11 397 counts of money laundering of which three years will run concurrently with 10 years for fraud. He will serve 15 years’ direct imprisonment,” Mhlongo said.
In 2018, sister publication the Sunday Tribune reported on a Chatsworth widow battling for four years because her husband, who is dead now, invested his life savings in an alleged Ponzi scheme run by Carmol Distributors.
The wait took a heavy toll on some of the scheme’s beneficiaries. Some have died due to ill health, a few have committed suicide and those indebted have lost their assets.
The widow, who did not want to be named, said her husband invested R500 000 in the scheme without her knowledge.
“We want answers because we are being kept in the dark. My husband died last year after suffering a heart attack. Since he lost his money, it has been downhill. He started to get sick and we were heavily burdened financially,” said the woman.
Another Carmol investor, who asked not to be named, said the delay had caused him to lose some of his assets and denied him the opportunity of sending two of his children to university.
“We did not know what we were getting into and now it’s too late.”
Daily News