The legal woes of alleged underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack are worsening as he is set to go on trial for allegedly defrauding the SA Revenue Service (SARS) out of R46 million.
After months in the dock, facing a klomp charges related to the murder of Anti-Gang Unit detective Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear, Nafiz was informed of his impending trial when he returned to the Western Cape High Court last Friday.
Nafiz, along with his mother Ruwaida, brother Yaseen, Faried van der Schyff, Bashier Syce, Layla Bedder- son, Dominique McLachlan and Kulsum van der Schyff, were arrested by the Hawks several years ago on fraud charges.
The group later appeared at Cape Town Magistrate’s Court. They are facing more than 700 charges of racketeering, fraud, money laundering, forgery and uttering and contravention of the VAT Act.
The State is out to prove that the group had registered as VAT vendors and were e-filing claims for refunds which could not be determined. Payments of R46 million were received.
But the tax trial was put on hold when the Western Cape High Court proceeded with its murder trial first.
According to the indictment, the State says a host of businesses and trusts registered by the “Modack Family Business”, which consists of security companies, car dealerships and other entities, were set up merely to claim tax returns.
The State alleges that Ruwaida was the manager of the enterprise and her home in Vanguard Estate was used as the address for the VAT vendors who submitted the false returns, and she was a co-signatory on various bank accounts.
The State also alleges that Faried and Nafiz were the kingpins and that Faried was a tax practitioner who allegedly submitted the false claims, while Nafiz allegedly collated the false information.
The rest of the group are accused of being employees of the various entities. The case was postponed until 30 August when Nafiz will be joined with his co-accused and will be given a date for the tax trial.