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In a joint effort, the East London Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit of the Hawks, in conjunction with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), secured the sentencing of Mlondolozi Maqungo (45), the sole director of USIBAIP PTY LTD, and his business entity, USOBAIP PTY LTD, by the East London Regional Court on April 10. They were convicted on charges related to fraud.
According to Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana, during the period between 2019 and 2020, Maqungo intentionally submitted fraudulent VAT 201 returns to SARS on behalf of his business entity.
He said that subsequent to that SARS conducted its internal assessment and picked up discrepancies in the returns submitted for the financial year in question.
“However, some of the returns were repudiated by SARS and some were paid to Maqungo. The matter was reported to the East London SCCI the Hawks for probing. The investigation revealed that indeed Maqungo had intentionally submitted false vat returns to defraud SARS, where the potential prejudice of an amount of over R900 000 was nearly suffered,” said Mhlakuvana.
He added that furthermore, SARS actually suffered a loss of over R600 000 in refund to his business entity.
According to Mhlakuvana, Maqungo was ultimately arrested by the investigating team of the hawks on November 25, 2022, and he made his first court appearance before East London Magistrate’s court on the same day then later released on R5000.00 bail.
Mhlakuvana added that he made numerous court appearances until his sentencing on Wednesday, April 10.
“Maqungo and his business entity were sentenced to pay a fine of R125 000 or undergo five years direct imprisonment. He was further ordered to repay SARS an amount of R52 000 on monthly basis starting on April 10, 2024, until March 7, 2025, to cover the outstanding amount which was R380 000. Should he opt for a fine he would be paying a total amount of R755 000.”
The Provincial Head of the Hawks, Major General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya has cherished the determination by team effort for the exceptional work done in making sure that the accused received a deserving sentence for defrauding SARS.
