NEWS - NAMIBIA
| 2013-07-24Dirk Fruit admits SA tax fraud
• WERNER MENGES
A FAMILY-OWNED South African firm involved in the Namibian fresh produce trade has admitted in a Cape Town court that it was guilty on a multitude of fraud and forgery charges related to the export of fruit and vegetables to Namibia.
The close corporation Dirk Fruit Supply Oshakati CC and two members of the family running the firm, Waleed Dirk and his sister, Fairuz Arendse, were sentenced to pay fines totalling eight million rand (N$8 million) on Monday, after they pleaded guilty to 127 charges of fraud and 53 counts of forgery in the Cape Town Regional Court.
All of the charges originate from Dirk Fruit’s involvement in the fresh produce business in Namibia. Waleed Dirk in his personal capacity, the close corporation, represented by Dirk, and Arendse admitted that they committed forgery and fraud when they created false invoices in order to evade paying customs duties on fresh produce that the firm was exporting from South Africa to Namibia.
When they committed the crimes they were continuing with business practices which their late father, who was the founder of Dirk Fruit, followed before his death, the two siblings claimed.
Dirk Fruit Supplies Oshakati CC, Dirk and Arendse were sentenced after they reached a plea and sentence agreement with the deputy director of public prosecutions in the Western Cape on Friday last week.
Dirk Fruit Supply Oshakati and Arendse, who is an employee of the close corporation, were sentenced to pay a fine of R500 000 each, with this sentence suspended in full on condition that the close corporation and Arendse are not convicted of fraud, forgery, uttering, theft or offences under South Africa’s Customs and Excise Act over the next five years.
Waleed Dirk was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, also suspended in full on condition that he is not convicted of fraud, forgery, uttering, theft or offences under the Customs and Excise Act committed during the next five years. He also had to pay a fine of R1 million into South Africa’s Criminal Asset Recovery Fund and has to pay an additional R7 million to the South African Revenue Service over the next five years.
In addition to that, Dirk has to serve a period of twelve months of correctional supervision, which will include being under house arrest at his home in Cape Town at certain hours.
The 180 charges against Dirk Fruit, Dirk and Arendse date from the period of January 2007 to March 2008.
That was a time when the Dirk family was beset with legal troubles and personal misfortunes.
A brother of Dirk and Arendse, Shamil Dirk, was arrested in Namibia on a charge under the Anti-Corruption Act in June 2007. It was alleged that he had paid bribes totalling about N$700 000 to a Namibian customs official at the Noordoewer border post so that trucks carrying fresh produce from South Africa to Namibia for Dirk Fruit could enter Namibia without the required customs duties being paid.
His case was later struck from the court roll, and has not returned to court after it had been forwarded to the Namibian Police for further investigations to be carried out on instructions from the Office of the Prosecutor General.
Also in June 2007, one of the sisters of Waleed and Shamil Dirk, Najwa Petersen, was arrested on a charge of having orchestrated the murder of her husband, musician Taliep Petersen, in Cape Town in December 2006. She was later convicted and is serving a 28-year prison term, it is recorded in the plea and sentence agreement concluded between Dirk Fruit, Waleed Dirk, Arendse and the prosecution.
Due to Petersen’s arrest the Dirk family structure “experienced severe pressure and had to focus on obtaining legal representation for her, at great costs”, it is stated in the agreement.
The family experienced a further setback when the family patriarch, Sulaiman Dirk, died in a road accident in the Northern Cape while on his way to Namibia at the end of September 2007.
Following his death, Waleed Dirk was pushed into a situation where he effectively had to take over the reins at Dirk Fruit, it is related in the plea and sentence agreement. Waleed Dirk had previously been delegated to the Namibian side of the family business, it is stated.
Together with the family business, Dirk also inherited a history of illegal business practices from his late father, the agreement indicates. Despite knowing that these practices were illegal, he and Arendse continued with them.
In doing this, they ordered false invoice books from printers in Cape Town, and then used those invoice books to create false invoices, which were later submitted to South Africa’s customs authorities when Dirk Fruit transported fresh produce across the border to Namibia.
Through the use of the false invoices they hid the fact that Dirk Fruit was also the exporter of the goods, and understated the quantity and value of the goods being exported, in order to avoid having to pay the correct customs duties on the goods, they admitted.
The customs value of the goods that were fraudulently exported by the accused amounted to a little over R7 million, according to South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority.
A FAMILY-OWNED South African firm involved in the Namibian fresh produce trade has admitted in a Cape Town court that it was guilty on a multitude of fraud and forgery charges related to the export of fruit and vegetables to Namibia.
The close corporation Dirk Fruit Supply Oshakati CC and two members of the family running the firm, Waleed Dirk and his sister, Fairuz Arendse, were sentenced to pay fines totalling eight million rand (N$8 million) on Monday, after they pleaded guilty to 127 charges of fraud and 53 counts of forgery in the Cape Town Regional Court.
All of the charges originate from Dirk Fruit’s involvement in the fresh produce business in Namibia. Waleed Dirk in his personal capacity, the close corporation, represented by Dirk, and Arendse admitted that they committed forgery and fraud when they created false invoices in order to evade paying customs duties on fresh produce that the firm was exporting from South Africa to Namibia.
When they committed the crimes they were continuing with business practices which their late father, who was the founder of Dirk Fruit, followed before his death, the two siblings claimed.
Dirk Fruit Supplies Oshakati CC, Dirk and Arendse were sentenced after they reached a plea and sentence agreement with the deputy director of public prosecutions in the Western Cape on Friday last week.
Dirk Fruit Supply Oshakati and Arendse, who is an employee of the close corporation, were sentenced to pay a fine of R500 000 each, with this sentence suspended in full on condition that the close corporation and Arendse are not convicted of fraud, forgery, uttering, theft or offences under South Africa’s Customs and Excise Act over the next five years.
Waleed Dirk was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, also suspended in full on condition that he is not convicted of fraud, forgery, uttering, theft or offences under the Customs and Excise Act committed during the next five years. He also had to pay a fine of R1 million into South Africa’s Criminal Asset Recovery Fund and has to pay an additional R7 million to the South African Revenue Service over the next five years.
In addition to that, Dirk has to serve a period of twelve months of correctional supervision, which will include being under house arrest at his home in Cape Town at certain hours.
The 180 charges against Dirk Fruit, Dirk and Arendse date from the period of January 2007 to March 2008.
That was a time when the Dirk family was beset with legal troubles and personal misfortunes.
A brother of Dirk and Arendse, Shamil Dirk, was arrested in Namibia on a charge under the Anti-Corruption Act in June 2007. It was alleged that he had paid bribes totalling about N$700 000 to a Namibian customs official at the Noordoewer border post so that trucks carrying fresh produce from South Africa to Namibia for Dirk Fruit could enter Namibia without the required customs duties being paid.
His case was later struck from the court roll, and has not returned to court after it had been forwarded to the Namibian Police for further investigations to be carried out on instructions from the Office of the Prosecutor General.
Also in June 2007, one of the sisters of Waleed and Shamil Dirk, Najwa Petersen, was arrested on a charge of having orchestrated the murder of her husband, musician Taliep Petersen, in Cape Town in December 2006. She was later convicted and is serving a 28-year prison term, it is recorded in the plea and sentence agreement concluded between Dirk Fruit, Waleed Dirk, Arendse and the prosecution.
Due to Petersen’s arrest the Dirk family structure “experienced severe pressure and had to focus on obtaining legal representation for her, at great costs”, it is stated in the agreement.
The family experienced a further setback when the family patriarch, Sulaiman Dirk, died in a road accident in the Northern Cape while on his way to Namibia at the end of September 2007.
Following his death, Waleed Dirk was pushed into a situation where he effectively had to take over the reins at Dirk Fruit, it is related in the plea and sentence agreement. Waleed Dirk had previously been delegated to the Namibian side of the family business, it is stated.
Together with the family business, Dirk also inherited a history of illegal business practices from his late father, the agreement indicates. Despite knowing that these practices were illegal, he and Arendse continued with them.
In doing this, they ordered false invoice books from printers in Cape Town, and then used those invoice books to create false invoices, which were later submitted to South Africa’s customs authorities when Dirk Fruit transported fresh produce across the border to Namibia.
Through the use of the false invoices they hid the fact that Dirk Fruit was also the exporter of the goods, and understated the quantity and value of the goods being exported, in order to avoid having to pay the correct customs duties on the goods, they admitted.
The customs value of the goods that were fraudulently exported by the accused amounted to a little over R7 million, according to South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority.
