British citizen Richard Marsden, the alleged kingpin in the theft of at least R31.5 million through the so-called R99 debit order scam, failed in his attempt to leave South Africa, supposedly to care for his ailing sister when his application to have his bail conditions eased was dismissed.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) told the Johannesburg specialised commercial crimes court, sitting in Palm Ridge, investigations into the elaborate bank crime had been completed and the trial of Marsden, alongside three co-accused, was expected to start in September.
The scheme lasted for about 13 months from January 2018 to February 2019, according to the NPA.
The other accused are Jason Foster, a co-director with Marsden in a company the state claims is at the centre of the scam, as well as Ravendra Singh and his son Andrew, both of whom allegedly received proceeds from the scam in their personal bank accounts and in their company account.
When the Singhs were arrested in May, the police dubbed the case the “R99 fraud” because R99 was the debit order amount commonly used to allegedly swindle unsuspecting bank clients, although the transaction amounts did vary.
The four accused, who are referred to as a syndicate by investigators, face a combined 61 counts of theft and the contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. They have indicated they would be pleading not guilty when asked by the court in September.
Bank clients hit
The prosecution argues that various companies, as well as Marsden and Foster’s personal bank accounts, were used to store the money from the alleged scam.
According to the charge sheet, Marsden and Foster were directors of Talent Base, a company registered as a “third-party payment provider” which was sponsored by Absa to “collect debit orders on behalf of other companies”.
A debit order “is a facility whereby a third party (user or beneficiary) can collect money from a customer’s bank account without having to do anything other than giving the bank a written, telephonic or electronic mandate to do so”, according to the charge sheet.
The state alleges that Talent Base stole money from clients of Rand Merchant Bank and First National Bank, which are subsidiaries of FirstRand Limited, with Marsden as the mastermind.
“The accused [Marsden] and the other persons with whom he acted in concert did not have authority from the holders of the accounts to debit their accounts with various amounts,” reads the charge sheet.
“Amounts of money that were deducted from clients of [FirstRand Limited] by [Talent Base] constituted proceeds of unlawful activities in that the deductions were made without the mandates of the holders of the accounts from which these amounts were deducted.”
The state says the alleged illegal deductions were first noticed in September 2018, when FNB clients started receiving debit orders with the references “Talarabian” and “Talcliffha”, which were linked to Talent Base.
“Talcliffha”, according to people close to the investigation, is a combination of the names Talent Base and Cliffhanger Trading, the latter a company controlled by the Singhs, which is on the accused list on the charge sheet. Cliffhanger is represented in court by Andrew Singh, who will bear all the consequences should the company be found guilty.
Talent Base also collected debit orders from FNB clients using the reference “Mzansi”.
“Notifications to clients of banks that debit orders have been processed on their accounts would typically include these references,” the charge sheet reads.
During the 13-month period of the alleged theft, Marsden received more than R2.8 million in his personal account from Talent Base’s Absa account, according to investigators’ notes before court.
Foster, according to the investigation, received R281 242.74 in his account, also directly paid from Talent Base’s account, with Ravendra Singh allegedly netting R1.5 million in his account.
The state claims other amounts were syphoned from unsuspecting account holders, through Talent Base’s Absa account, into company accounts controlled by Foster and the Singhs. For example, court papers show how — from August 2018 to January 2019, in just 16 transactions — a company called Fostech, of which Foster is a director, received more than R13.2 million.
In August, September, October and December 2018, in four transactions, Millennial Thinkers, another company controlled by Foster, as well as accounts allegedly belonging to Ravendra Singh, received more than R14.3 million from Talent Base’s Absa account, court filings say.
The documents added that Andrew Singh, through Cliffhanger Trading, received R956 684 in October 2018.
“[All accused] did unlawfully acquire or have possession of amounts knowing, or having ought reasonably to have known, that the said amounts of money were or formed part of the proceeds of unlawful activities of another person or other persons,” claims the state.
On 1 March, magistrate Emmanuel Magampa dismissed Marsden’s application to ease his stringent November 2021 bail conditions, so he could visit his sick sister in Spain. He was under house arrest in KwaZulu-Natal.
Marsden was arrested in October 2021 and initially denied bail, but was released on strict conditions, including having to report to a police station three times a week to sign a register. Marsden said he also wanted to visit his three children in the UK, one of whom he alleged had problems paying his tuition fees at an English college.
But Marsden did not provide physical addresses for where he would be staying while in Spain and England, nor did he submit an affidavit from his sister on why he was the best person to take care of her and not her two other siblings.
The state, in opposing the application to amend the bail conditions, said this was tantamount to Marsden wanting to “flee” South Africa to avoid justice. The magistrate agreed.
Marsden also did not say when he would return, stating only that he would be in South Africa when his trial began in September.
“You have used the same reasons that were used when your bail was [initially] denied [in October 2021]. Therefore, your application to amend your bail conditions is denied,” Magampa said.
The R31.5 million over which the accused have been charged is allegedly a drop in the ocean compared with amounts in the wider inquiry by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks).
In a statement in May, the Hawks said the accused had “syphoned approximately R248 million from unsuspecting bank clients and transferred [the money] into different bank accounts allegedly linked to the syndicate”.
“We sincerely sympathise with all the bank clients who became victims of the alleged fraudsters,” said Major General Ebrahim Kadwa, head of the Hawks in Gauteng.
