Prof’s fraud trial delay

STATE AIMS FOR JAIL TERM: REPORT FROM EXPERT IS STILL PENDING

Family Advocate must ascertain effect on children if the man and wife are jailed.

The fraud and racketeering trial of two former top university professors, one of their wives, a former South African Revenue Service (Sars) official and a businessperson has been delayed for a report by the Family Advocate.

Judge Sulet Potterill yesterday postponed the trial of former Sars official Leslie Moonsamy, former Unisa economic sciences professor Oludele Akinboade, his wife Nancy, former Venda University professor Agyapong Gyekye and businessperson Boitumelo Boshego to June 15.

This was after the state indicated it would ask for the direct imprisonment of Professor Akinboade and his wife, which necessitated a report by the Family Advocate regarding the plight of their children if they were sent to jail.

In September last year, Judge Potterill acquitted Moonsamy’s former boss, former Sars deputy director Mandisa Mokwena, on all charges, but found her five co-accused guilty on a range of charges, including racketeering and several of fraud.

The judge said she might have her suspicions about Mokwena’s knowledge of a pattern of racketeering involving her co-accused in the alleged manipulation of quotations for training and research work for Sars, but that the state could not prove her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

She found that Akinboade had headed a criminal enterprise which falsified quotations to secure lucrative research and training contracts with Sars.

She rejected Akinboade’s claim he had fallen victim to a “rogue unit” in Sars as “a red herring” to hide his involvement in the fraudulent scheme.

A seventh accused, former Unisa employee Emilie Djoumessi, a Cameroonian citizen, is still at large after fleeing the country.