Nurse, daughter's assets forfeited
2013-02-22 21:27
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Johannesburg - The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria
has issued an order to seize assets worth millions of rands from a Swaziland
nurse and her daughter accused of fraud, the NPA said on Friday.
"The forfeiture order follows a request for legal
assistance from the Swaziland government to assist with the criminal
investigation and seizure of the tainted assets," the National
Prosecutions Authority in Mpumalanga said in a statement.
The order comes after an investigation conducted by
forensic firm KPMG on behalf of Swaziland's health and social welfare ministry
into fraud, theft, and money laundering allegedly perpetrated by Charlotte
Holiswa Mnwana and her daughter Mmabatho Success Mnwana against the Swaziland
government.
The court ordered on Wednesday that a Northcliff
townhouse worth R1.6m, which Charlotte purchased in cash, and several bank
accounts be forfeited and transferred to the Swaziland government.
Charlotte is registered as a nurse at the Board of
Healthcare Funders of Southern Africa.
Charlotte allegedly submitted false medical claims to the
Swaziland government in respect of its two medical referral schemes - the
Government Employees Scheme and the Phalala Scheme.
"The Government Employees Scheme's primary objective
is to enable Swazi government employees and their dependants to receive medical
care in South Africa when such care is not available in Swaziland," said
the NPA.
The Phalala Scheme was meant to assist Swazi citizens who
would otherwise not have access to specialist medical care to secure such care
either within Swaziland or outside the country.
Between January 2008 and 24 September 2010, the Swaziland
Treasury made cheque payments amounting to about R4 670 000 to Charlotte
as a result of the false claims that she submitted for services allegedly
rendered.
All the payments were paid into three ABSA bank accounts
- one account belonged to Charlotte while the other two were in her daughters'
name.
"The two transferred substantial amounts of money
from the three accounts to twelve other ABSA bank investment accounts which
were opened by them between July 2008 to February 2012."
The two are also being investigated by the South African
police for forgery, theft, and money laundering.
- SAPA
