Staff Reporter.
The National Prosecuting Authority Asset Forfeiture Unit (NPA AFU) have seized luxury assets worth more than R165 million from the accused in the R47 million Soccer World Cup fraud and corruption case involving Durban businessman Thoshan Panday and former KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni.
In a statement, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said the Investigating Directorate (ID) was granted a provisional restraint order of R165 million against Panday, Ngobeni and seven others.
The court order was executed on Monday morning in and around Durban.
The other defendants whose assets have been restrained are former police members Colonel Navin Madhoe and Captain Ashwin Narainpershad, as well as those belonging to Panday’s mother, Arvenda Panday, ex-wife Privisha Panday, brother-in-law Seevesh Maharaj Ishwarkumar, sister, Kajal Ishwarkumar, and his assistant Tasleem Rahiman.
“The NPA, with this court order, is hard at work attempting to take the profits out of crime. The court granted the NPA the order in chambers on 29 March 2023. The curator was then issued with letters of curatorship by the Master of the High Court on 11 April 2023 and execution took place [on Monday],” said NPA spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka.
“Their intentional delay in procuring accommodation well in advance of the 2010 SWC, led to an urgent deviation from normal procurement processes which had to be processed in haste by the National Office,” Seboka said.
She added that as a result, Thoshan Panday’s company, Goldcoast Trading, received at least 80% of the accommodation order and “charged SAPS rates which were much higher than other service providers”.
“Panday misrepresented that Goldcoast had secured block bookings in 2008 for the 2010 SWC, which was false. Panday then had to place police members in venues, paid them a low rate and claimed inflated rates from SAPS.
“In addition, Goldcoast and four other entities associated with him through family member ownership, received orders approved by Madhoe and Narainpershad for miscellaneous goods required by SAPS members for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, through fraud including cover quoting and forgery,” she said.
Seboka said that it is the NPA’s contention that Panday is the “mastermind of the criminal enterprise”.
The ID said the curator froze the bank accounts of all the accused cited in the restraint order and the return date of the provisional order is 29 May 2023.
The criminal case linked to the restraint returns to the Durban High Court on 25 August 2023.
Compiled by Lehlohonolo Lehana.