‘Con’ believe it! Hawks swoop on family in R100k UIF fraud scheme
Abdul Kariem Brown, Mariam Brown, Mogamat Anwar Majiet, Mogamat Igshaan Joharie, Mogamat Shafiek Brown and Noerudeen Brown.
A skelme Cape Flats family accused of stealing kroon from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) have been being busted by the Hawks.
An internal investigation into the payment of UIF funds to Kasam Services, a pool service company, led to the arrest of Ismail Brown, Mariam Brown, Mogamat Anwar Majiet, Noerudeen Brown, Mogamat Igshaan Joharie, Abdul Kariem Brown and Mogamat Shafiek Brown last week for allegedly stealing more than R100 000.
The seven family members appeared in court on Friday and has been released on bail.
Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani said the company was registered with the Department of Labour in March 2015 but an internal investigation revealed that four employees were declared during the employer registration process on August 22, 2019 and the applications for them were tendered in to receive unemployment benefits.
She said a month later another three employees were declared by Kasam Services to receive unemployment benefits but in the investigation, they first found that Mariam Brown was never an employee.
“Further detailed investigation exposed that the applications were submitted by Ismail Brown, who is the brother of Abdul Brown who is married to the director of the company.”
Hani explained that Mariam is the wife of Noerudeen Brown, who is employed at the Department of Labour as a client service officer and is alleged to have ensured that the claims were processed.
“Investigation revealed that three of the claims already received part of the UIF benefits to the value of R108 057.97.
“The other four claims were placed on hold when it came to the attention of the Department of Labour that these claims were fraudulent.
“This then led to the matter being referred to the Hawks for further probing and led to the arrest of the accused.”
She said the Brown family appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court where they are facing 18 charges of fraud, forgery, uttering and corruption.
They were granted bail of R2 500 each and the case was postponed to May 15.