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The Gqeberha based Serious Commercial Crimes Investigation of the Hawks alongside South African Revenue Service and the National Prosecuting Authority ensured that one of the directors of Three Architects PTY LTD, Bandile Brian Boyana (50) appears in the Durban Magistrate’s court on April 8 for fraud allegations.
Additionally, Aubrey Mokgobi Moeng (44) the company’s accounting consultant who is also his co-accused, was arrested March 18 and was released on bail worth R5000.
According to Warrant-Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana, “It is alleged that during the period between November 2015 and July 2021, Boyana and Moeng intentionally submitted fraudulent Value Added Tax (VAT) 201 returns to SARS on behalf of their business entity.”
Afterwards, an internal assessment was done by SARS and inconsistencies in the returns submitted for the relevant financial years were noticed.
He explained that the reports revealed that certain returns were declined by SARS, while others were disbursed to the accused. The issue was subsequently brought to the attention of the Gqeberha SCCI division of the Hawks for thorough investigation.
“The investigation revealed that indeed the suspects had intentionally submitted false vat returns to defraud SARS, where the potential prejudice of an amount of over R8.2 million was nearly suffered,” said Mhlakuvana.
“Further investigation exposed that, SARS actually suffered a loss of over R3 million in refund to their business entity.”
He added that, “Boyana was ultimately arrested by the investigating team of the hawks on April 7, and he made his first court appearance before Durban Magistrates' court on the same day then he was a suspect in transit from Durban to Gqeberha New Law court to face his allegations.”
The accused appeared at the Gqeberha New Law court on April 9 and was released on R10 000 bail.
The matter was then remanded to May 2 for the accused to join his co-accused as the search for the other two accused is ongoing.
