FLASHY cars, Louis Vuitton bags, Gucci caps, luxury furniture and cash are among the valuable items the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) seized from KZN businessman Thoshan Panday and his ex-wife and former provincial commissioner, Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni.
The NPA’s asset forfeiture unit (AFU) and the Investigating Directorate (ID) swooped on their homes on Monday, 17 April. They were armed with a provisional restraint order of R165 million granted against the accused.
ID spokeswoman Sindisiwe Seboka said the execution of the court order by the curator appointed by the High Court took place in the morning in and around Durban.
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"The NPA, with this court order, is hard at work attempting to take the profits out of crime. The court granted the NPA the order in chambers on 29 March 2023. The curator was then issued with letters of curatorship by the Master of the High Court on 11 April 2023 and execution took place today," she said.
She said the restraint order was directly linked to the criminal case that was being heard in the Durban High Court.
Seboka said other defendants whose assets have been restrained are Colonel Navin Madhoe, the former section head of acquisition in Supply Chain Management (SCM) at the office of the provincial commissioner and Captain Ashwin Narainpershad, formerly of SCM KZN.
The assets of Panday's family members, Arvenda Panday (mum), Privisha Panday(ex-wife), Seevesh Maharaj Ishwarkumar (brother-in-law), Kajal Ishwarkumar (sister) and Tasleem Rahiman (his professional assistant), have also been restrained.
The alleged criminal syndicate is accused of defrauding the SAPS by inflating the prices of accommodation for police members during the 2010 World Cup, amounting to R47million.
Seboka said they also allegedly deliberately didn't follow up on invitations they had sent to existing service providers, who charged reasonable rates.
"Thereby causing the need to procure accommodation for SAPS members for the 2010 SWC on an urgent basis and at inflated rates, a mere couple of days before the 2010 World Cup was due to start," she said.
Seboka said the curator has frozen the bank accounts of all the parties involved.
She said: "The order of over R165million is the amount of the proceeds of unlawful activities received by the enterprise, and the individual parties in furtherance of the conspiracy and/or common purpose and/or the commissioning of the crimes."
