Now Durban businessman Thoshan Panday hit with 27 tax fraud charges

Durban businessman Thoshan Panday will remain in custody after his arrest on tax fraud charges until his next court appearance on Monday when he is expected to apply for bail. 

Panday, 51, appeared in the Durban magistrate’s court to face 27 counts of fraud, alternatively contraventions of tax legislation. The state intends to oppose bail.

Before his latest arrest, Panday was charged — together with eight others including former KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni — in the Durban High court with racketeering, fraud and corruption.

“The state alleges that Panday was effectively in control of several entities which had received payments from the police in an amount of about R47m owing to a corrupt relationship with members of the supply chain management division of the police service,” said Independent Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) spokesperson Henry Mamothame.

He said the payments were allegedly made in respect of services rendered to the police preceding and during the Soccer World Cup in 2010. That case is ongoing. 

Mamothame said Panday now faces tax fraud charges as a result of the submission of tax returns in respect of the entities that he had controlled which allegedly received payments from the SAPS during the 2010 and 2011 tax years.

“After the IDAC had extended its investigations into the tax compliance of the entities controlled by Panday, tax investigations conducted by Sars revealed that declarations made in the tax returns were false,” Mamothame said. 

He said Sars had suffered prejudice in the amount of R7.3m as a result of these false tax declarations. 

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