OUTA hopes sentencing of VBS Mutual Bank looting kingpin sends warning to criminals
The bank’s former chairperson Tshifhiwa Matodzi was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for multiple counts of racketeering, theft, fraud and money laundering.
VBS Bank ( VBS Twitter page)
JOHANNESBURG - The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) says it hopes the sentencing of one of the kingpins in the VBS Mutual Bank looting will send a strong message to other criminals.
The bank’s former chairperson - Tshifhiwa Matodzi - was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for multiple counts of racketeering, theft, fraud and money laundering.
His offences and those of others led to the bank going under and losing over R2.2 billion.
Matodzi’s sentence was reduced through a plea bargain from over 400 to 15 years behind bars.
OUTA’s Wayne Duvenage expressed concern that such crimes may continue.
“There are many cases that have happened before us and yet the looting continues – seems to be because justice takes so long. The risk of being caught is reduced and the rewards are so big that people remain tempted to steal and I don’t think it’s going to stop,” he said.