Former IT executive in dock over R130 million fraud

ADRIAAN Pillay, a former Cell C information technology employee, stood alone in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Johannesburg last week.

Pillay, 39, who was charged with fraud and corruption amounting to R130 million, was to appear with his co-accused, Ismail Adanjee Mohamed, 44, but the latter had taken ill. As a result, Pillay’s attorney requested an adjournment.

Captain Ndivhuwo Mulamu, a spokesperson for the Hawks, said the matter would be heard on August 25 for disclosure.

“This means the defence will have an opportunity to peruse the docket as per the alleged offence committed by the suspects,” said Mulamu.

Pillay and Mohamed were arrested separately following investigations by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team in Germiston.

Cell C had opened fraud and corruption charges against several suspects and companies, which included the co-accused.

It is alleged that Cell C found that the co-accused conspired with a director of a contracted entity responsible for IT and network service providers and falsely inflated invoices. This resulted in a loss of more R130 million from 2012 to 2019.

The two accused allegedly overcharged Cell C for ordered goods and split the profits between them and those involved.

Mulamu said investigations began in 2020, following an internal audit at the cellphone company.

Mohamed was arrested in January and was the first suspect linked to the case. He was released on R50 000 bail. Pillay was arrested a month later after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was also granted bail of R50 000.

Prior to their arrests, Cell C’s legal team, from BDK Attorneys, executed a raid at their residences and recovered evidence in accordance with a high court order. The evidence is in the custody of the sheriff as per the order.

According to papers before the Johannesburg High Court, Cell C sought to obtain an order on the grounds of possible collusion between the accused, Cornastone Enterprise Systems, and an entity named Techno Genius. This was in respect of IT goods and services Cell C procured from Cornastone from 2012 to date. Cornastone is one of Cell C’s vendors.

Mohamed was, as per court documents, employed by Cell C from January 2002 to May 7, 2020. Since September 2011, he was an executive in business operations support. During his employment, Mohamed was involved in IT-related procurement.

Pillay was employed by Cell C from September 2004 to July 2014. He was Mohamed’s subordinate and reported to him. Pillay allegedly resigned in July 2014 while disciplinary proceedings were pending against him. The background to the disciplinary proceedings was not disclosed.

Cell C allegedly discovered the collusion in March 2020. The company found that whenever it made payments to Cornastone for goods delivered or services rendered following a procurement process, Cornastone allegedly paid a portion of the payment to Techno Genius and/ or Pillay. That portion was allegedly from an inflated invoice.

From 2012 to date, whenever Cell C needed to buy IT goods or services, it sent a request for a quote to three or four vendors with specific business requirements, said court documents.

“Cornastone was one of these vendors. Adamjee (Mohamed) was tasked to consider the quotes received from the targeted vendors. Owing to his insight into the prices by other vendors, Adamjee benchmarked the prices and quotes provided by Cornastone to Cell C, thereby facilitating the success of Cornastone’s quotes.

“Through Adamjee’s influence, Cell C would contract with Cornastone as its ‘preferred supplier’ for the required IT goods and/or services, not knowing that Cornastone’s quotes are exaggerated.”

When Cell C allegedly paid Cornastone for the goods and services procured, Cornastone retained the amount for the bona fide price and paid over the exaggerated portion to Techno Genius and/or Pillay.

Cell C allegedly discovered that Pillay was the sole director of Techno Genius and that he and Mohamed were business associates.

“They each hold a co-50% beneficial ownership of House and Home Refurbishments CC.”

In May 2020, several representatives of Cell C allegedly met Mohamed and presented to him an email, which they uncovered. The email was allegedly sent from his Google mail account to Cornastone, and it related to a payment to be made to Techno Genius.

This allegedly led Cell C to believe that Mohamed used his Google mail and other private email accounts to correspond with Cornastone and Techno Genius relating to the procurement activities.

Angela Nala, Cell C’s spokesperson, said: “Cell C has a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal or unethical activity and will not hesitate to act on evidence and take the appropriate action.

“The company is fully supporting the authorities in the case and will allow the law to take its course.”