Two businessmen who allegedly defrauded Sars of R116m in court

Two businessmen from Gauteng who are facing 35 counts of tax fraud were released on bail of R10,000 each after they appeared in the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court on Monday.

Khothatso Isaac Moletsane, 48, and Tumelo Peter Moletsane, 54, were charged together with their company, Mol Pro Consulting, for defrauding the South African Revenue Service (Sars) of about R116.7m by under-declaring the trading activities of their company.

The R116.7m is made up of R83m of actual prejudice and R33.7m of potential prejudice to Sars.

“The state evidence is that between December 2011 and May 2019, the two businessmen, who were the directors of Mol Pro Consulting, allegedly submitted nil returns to Sars on behalf of their company by misrepresenting the trading activities of the company,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phaladi Shuping said.

Shuping said between February 2014 and September 2016, they allegedly under-declared the VAT income of the company in the VAT201 declaration when they submitted their company tax return, prejudicing Sars to an amount of about R34.5m. The VAT201 declaration is a form prescribed by Sars where VAT vendors declare their input and output tax.

“Both the VAT201 and the company income tax were submitted through e-filing. The company had, however, done business with municipalities and government departments and the money was deposited into the bank accounts of the company,” Shuping said.

He said between July 2017 and February 2019, they allegedly under-declared the trading activities of their company when they submitted their VAT201, and this prejudiced Sars to an amount of R7.7m.

In 2018, they allegedly declared a nil return when they submitted their company income tax return, whereas the company traded and received R61.2m and the income tax due to Sars was R17m.

“In February 2019, when they submitted the VAT201 of their company, they allegedly overstated the input tax and prejudiced Sars to an amount of R33.7m.

“They allegedly under-declared the VAT income and income tax of their company and overstated tax returns submitted to Sars.”

The case was postponed until March 16 for them to make representations to the director of public prosecutions.

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.