Load shedding, coupled with a power outage in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court precinct, has once again delayed the R180 million Ponzi scheme bail hearing.
On Tuesday, the bail hearing for Brandon Naicker, aka Muruvan Egambaram, and his co-accused, Abraham “Jason” Pillay, accused of running a massive Ponzi scheme that targeted pensioners, was delayed and had to be rolled over due to a power outage at the precinct.
When people arrived at court on Wednesday morning, the power at the court precinct was still out. This caused a massive delay in the hundreds of matters that were meant to be heard in court.
However, the electricity was restored by electricians from the Public Works Department at 11am and the proceedings against Naicker and Pillay resumed.
The pair are in court for allegedly fleecing an investor of R2 million.
However, it is one of more than 80 cases currently being probed by detectives from the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation (also known as the Hawks) where investors lost tens of millions of rands.
The pair have been charged with eight counts, including theft and fraud.
Senior State prosecutor Joel Kisten told the court that money from investors was put into a brokerage firm called Branson Capital, run by Naicker and Pillay, who were both directors, and as soon as it landed, it left to pay other investors, used for gambling tokens, properties, forex, and to support the lifestyle of Naicker.
Detective Constable Simphiwe Maphumulo of the Hillcrest police, in wrapping up his evidence-in-chief from the previous day, told the court after being probed by Kisten that his investigations had uncovered another property that Naicker had not declared to the court in his bail application.
Naicker, through his attorney, advocate Dhamien Reddy, told the court that he owned a property with his wife in an estate in Ballito and a family home in Stanger.
Maphumulo, however, told the court on Tuesday that the AFU had discovered other properties in Cape Town that belonged to Naicker, although they were not registered in his name.
On Wednesday, Maphumulo said that he had uncovered another property in Stanger that had been paid for in cash last year, belonged to Naicker, and was registered in his name.
He reiterated that he was opposed to bail for both men and told them that he was “99% sure” they would continue committing offences if released on bail.
Under cross-examination by Magistrate Gwendolyn Robinson on the time-lines of when Naicker resigned as a director of Branson Capital, Maphumulo said that contrary to his statement to the court that he had resigned in September last year, Naicker had only resigned in July this year when he began investigating the accused.
Maphumulo said that Naicker was still a signatory on the Branson Capital bank account and had been recruiting investors this year.
After Maphumulo completed his testimony, Magistrate Robinson said she had no option but to roll the matter over as the court experienced load shedding between 2-4pm and there were other matters on her court roll, and there was not enough time to hear the closing arguments.
The matter was adjourned until next week.
IOL News