How dirty money was filtered through Sasfin accounts

Gold Leaf Tobacco Corporation’s (GLTC) multibillion-rand cross-border plunder network ground to a complete halt at times when implicated Sasfin Bank officials were unable to sneak payments to offshore destinations, WhatsApp conversations and money flows attached to SARS court papers suggest. About R3bn in illicit tobacco money was surreptitiously and illegally washed through GLTC’s Sasfin accounts during the 2017 and 2018 financial years, SARS investigators found. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, SARS last month seized control of all bank accounts and assets of GLTC and its two directors, Zimbabwean citizen Simon Rudland and South African Ebrahim Adamjee. The Daily Maverick reports that investigators told the court it is in the process of clawing back at least R1bn in undeclared taxes from GLTC which could escalate to R3bn, including penalties and interest. A multi-year tax evasion investigation found the company was making a fortune in cash from illicit tobacco sales. GLTC laundered the money through cash-in-transit and gold companies and then allegedly paid off at least five Sasfin employees with cash to sneak more than R3bn out of the country – without alerting the authorities.