Two Nigerian nationals jailed after stealing R11m from SA property traders

Cape Town – Convicted Nigerian nationals Olatunji Samson Abdul and Adedayo Quandri have reportedly been sentenced to eight years and seven years in prison respectively by the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sitting in Palm Ridge, Gauteng for cloning email accounts of conveyancers DM5 and Yaron Waks and stealing over R11m from clients.

According to Times Live, DM5 and Yaron Waks handled property sales and registrations on behalf of its clients, Amogelang Holdings and Lesley Warther respectively.

“The accused used spyware and viruses to monitor emails between the law firms and their clients (property traders) that were about to do/receive transfers from the conveyancers after their properties were sold.

“They would then send their banking details to the conveyancers, as though these emails were from the property traders, resulting in R7.8m and R4.2m being diverted to their accounts,” the report quoted National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane as saying.

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An IOL report said that on May 14 2019, DM 5 received an email purporting to be from Amohelang Holdings, instructing the company to transfer the proceeds of the sale of property worth R7 836 347.70 which was due to Amohelang into a bank account belonging to Siphosihle Sithole.