Former SARS Auditor Sentenced 20 Years for R54 Million Fraud

 
(The Post News)- Monica Pretorius, a former auditor at the South African Revenue Services (SARS), has been sentenced to an effective 20 years in prison after she was found guilty of corruption and fraud.
 
The 55-year-old Pretorius embezzled more than R50 million from SARS and assisted a bogus tax practitioner, Cornelius Kreik, in submitting a fraudulent VAT refund claim in exchange for cash and a car, which she registered in her daughter’s name. 
 
Pretorius was a VAT auditor at SARS in Alberton when these crimes were committed.
 
Phindi Mjonondwane, a regional spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), stated that Pretorius’s regular unpaid leave, absenteeism from work, and lifestyle alerted the authorities to the fraudulent activity.
 
In 2015, after the SARS Anti-Corruption Unit’s inquiry into her fraudulent activities, Pretorius resigned.
 
According to Mjonondwane, the Palm Ridge-based Specialised Commercial Crimes Court also discovered that Pretorius and Kreik had a corrupt relationship in which they divided the profits from the refund claims with their clients.
 
Explaining Pretorius’s role in the scheme, Mjonondwane said that Pretorius was responsible for assigning audits related to the scheme to herself and making sure that reimbursement claims were fulfilled without the need for additional intervention.
 
Mjonondwane emphasised that the NPA condemns corruption and said, “The NPA views corruption as a cancer and is committed to rooting it out in the private and public sectors.”
 
he added that public servants who misuse their position for corrupt purposes will be subject to the full force of the law.
 
Pretorius was found guilty on several charges, including fraud and corruption, and was given an effective 20-year prison sentence by the court on Thursday, July 25.
 
She was found guilty on July 11, 2023. In 2018, Kreik entered a guilty plea to the same charges and received a 20-year sentence.
 
The case against Pretorius was postponed and ended in 2023 as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.
 
According to Senior State Prosecutor Advocate Marius Oosthuizen in a court statement, Pretorius should be imprisoned immediately for abusing her position to defraud the government and benefit herself. 
 
Oosthuizen added that she violated the confidence that the public entrusted in her.