R2.4m seized from top cop’s courier son

Policeman arranged for sums to be transported for Chinese woman

What would you sacrifice to land a lucrative job for your son? In the case of a senior policeman it was … his son.

The odd state of affairs came about after Maj Gen Charles Johnson (pictured), then head of crime investigation and detective services at police HQ in Pretoria, was asked by a “Mr Leon” for assistance in moving large sums of cash from Pretoria to Cape Town.

The explosive details of what happened next are contained in a Kimberley high court judgment awarding an asset forfeiture order against Johnson’s son, Jermaine, and a Chinese woman, Yanfang Qiu.

According to judge Mpho Mamosebo, Jermaine and his cousin, Deavon Noble, were arrested at a roadblock in Colesberg in September 2017. They had a briefcase they could not open.

Jermaine called his father, who gave the combination to the lock, and inside police found R2.43m. Jermaine and Noble were charged with money laundering, and the prosecution applied to have the money forfeited to the state, as the proceeds of crime.

The judgment said Qiu gave the briefcase to Jermaine and provided him with a VW Polo for the journey. He was given an additional R20,000 — R5,000 for fuel and food and R15,000 as his payment.

In an affidavit deposed by the senior policeman in defence of his son and Qiu, Johnson said he had known Leon since 2002 as an “informant who assisted him in kidnapping cases”.

“Mr Leon informed Maj Gen Johnson that he has had past encounters during which Chinese nationals who transported money on his behalf were robbed by the police or traffic officers or other individuals who extorted payment from his couriers,” the judgment said. “There is no documentary evidence to this effect.”

Johnson said his son had transported money on “four or five occasions”. On the day of Jermaine’s arrest, Johnson said he contacted Leon, who provided him with the code to the briefcase and the amount of money it contained.

Jermaine told police he was employed by a “Chinese national called Mr Qiu”, who owned the car, and that it was “not his first time to be caught”.

In her explanation, Yanfang Qiu told the court two of her countrymen had brought substantial amounts of US currency to SA, which they did not declare, and had won the rest of the money at casinos. She said she kept it until it was needed to buy 75t of oysters from an aquaculture company in Saldanha Bay, north of Cape Town.

Mamosebo found some of the claims “peculiar”, saying: “[Jermaine] claims to have been contacted by … Ms Yanfang Qiu. He does not specify how she contacted him. If she is the one who contacted him, why would he, upon demand by the SAPS for the code to unlock the briefcase, call his father and not his acquaintance?

“If the US dollars that the Chinese nationals entered the country with were exchanged for South African currency, why were supporting documents to that effect not produced? If the cash was derived from winnings from casinos, what prevented the respondents from attaching supporting documentation?”

The judge dismissed Qui’s claims that she was entrusted with casino winnings for the purchase of oysters as a “myth”. “Ms Qiu’s version in respect of the cash must be rejected as fabricated,” said Mamosebo.

Attorney Prianka Soni, for Jermaine and Qiu, said they were still studying the judgment.

National police spokesperson Brig Vishnu Naidoo said Johnson had resigned.