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Seven suspects to appear in court for VBS looting

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Seven suspects in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal are expected to appear in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sitting in Palm Ridge east of Johannesburg on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the former chief officer of the now defunct bank, Phillip Truter, was sentenced to an effective seven years in prison. The court convicted him of two counts of fraud, corruption, money laundering, racketeering and failure to declare tax.

Truter entered into a plea agreement with the state that will see him testify against seven co-accused. Truter is the eighth accused in the VBS looting case in which R2,7 billion of depositors’ money was allegedly misappropriated.

The National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Sipho Ngwema says they will now focus on municipal officials and political figures implicated in the scandal.

“In the end we have settled for an agreement that is good for the case that we are investigating. He’s going to work with us and we’ve got a good settlement, the hawks have been very patient they’ve been very meticulous. The strategy is working. You will be aware that the case has got three legs, we have got this one of the executive, we have the legs that deals with local government and political personalities involved in the matter. All of those are progressing very well and I think that at the end of the day we will be able to serve them with an indictment.”

In June seven suspects were in court 

ANC fires mayor involved in VBS corruption

In August, the African National Congress in Gauteng fired Merafong Municipal Executive Mayor, Maphefo Letsie and recalled Boysie Maneli from Parliament.

Letsie and Maneli have been fired for not taking action against municipal officials who were involved in the VBS bank corruption.

Maneli is the former Mayor of the West Rand Municipality. However, the ANC provincial executive committee has cleared Johannesburg regional chairperson, Geoff Makhubo of any wrongdoing.

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