Crime definitely doesn’t pay and this man has just learnt that the hard way! The High Court in Pretoria has ordered that the whopping R111 million that had been frozen in businessman Thabo Abel Simbini’s bank accounts, be forfeited to the state.

Here’s what happened: In November 2020, the same court was granted an order to freeze accounts belonging to Simbini and his business, Impossible Services (Pty) Ltd.

NPA: SIMBINI WAS PAID BASED ON A FRAUDULENT CLAIM

According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), just a month before order was granted, October Impossible Services claimed to have terminated the employment of 6 647 people, but the company only had one person who had submitted a claim to the UIF – Thabo Abel Simbini himself.

“Impossible Services was paid R111,003,088.73 into the company’s bank account based on the fraudulent claim. Subsequent investigations revealed that the employees were not employed by Impossible Services and the company was fraudulently using people’s identity documents to claim for normal UIF and Covid-19 TERS benefits without their knowledge,” NPA spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said at the time.

Just when you think you’ve heard it all: When the Hawks pounced on the Hammanskraal businessman, he was “caught red-handed bribing an official from the Department of Employment and Labour. The NPA says Simbini now faces an additional charge of corruption in that respect.

“He paid the UIF official a bribe of R10,000 and was arrested in a sting operation by members of the Hawks,” the NPA said.

The case against Simbini will continue in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on 1 February 2022.

In October this year, the Hawks’ Serious Corruption Investigation team in Germiston swooped on three company directors for allegedly using ghost employees to defraud the COVID-19 UIF Temporary Relief Scheme Fund (TERS) of approximately R10 million last year.