A former employee of First National Bank has been released on bail by the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crime Court.
Lwando Dingiswayo, 30, was granted R1000 bail after being arrested by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) on numerous charges of fraud and being in contravention of the Electronics Communications and Transactions Act.
According to the Eastern Cape provincial Hawks spokesperson, Captain Yolisa Mgolodela, it is alleged that between December 8, 2017, and February 14, 2018, the FNB investment account of a German national was accessed by two employees.
She said the contact information of the account holder was changed, the signing authority on the account was cancelled and a new signing authority was granted to a fictitious John Mackay who supposedly formed part of a syndicate.
“Mackay is further alleged to have transferred funds from the investment account to the client’s cheque account and attempted to withdraw money from the cheque account without success.
“When the transaction was unsuccessful and the account was put on hold, Mackay somehow managed to transfer the balance of R400 000 in the investment account to a Standard Bank account that was opened using fraudulent documentation,” Mgolodela said.
She said the money was successfully withdrawn from the Standard Bank account before the account was frozen shortly afterwards.
The German national who owns the bank account was not in South Africa during the alleged fraudulent activities.
Mgolodela said the account had a balance of R6 million and an actual loss of only R400 000 after several failed fraudulent transactions.
The complaint was received by the Hawks in March 2018, and an investigation into the matter led to Dingiswayo’s arrest on Wednesday.
She added further arrests are imminent.