Fraudster offers to pay back scammed cash
A woman who swindled R820,000 from distressed pensioners when she pretended to be an investment broker on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) will be sentenced on Thursday.
Now, in a desperate bid to escape prison, convicted fraudster Chuma Mangcaka is promising to pay back the money she stole from at least nine victims who she had promised exorbitant returns on their “investments” between 2012 and 2013.
Mangcaka’s lawyer, Zolile Ngqeza, on Monday argued for a non-custodial sentence for his client and said she would pay back the money she had stolen from her victims.
Mangcaka was found guilty on nine charges of fraud and theft in November 2017.
The court found that she had misappropriated R820,000 of pensioners’ money for personal use, with two of the victims having suffered individual losses of R250,000.
“We are not downplaying the seriousness of the offence, Your Worship, I must stress this,” Ngqeza told magistrate Louis Claassen.
Mangcaka sat in the dock with her braided head bowed.
“We accept that it’s a serious offence – but what we’re saying is that there are a number of [other] sentences that the court can consider for her.
“Not only one – direct imprisonment,” Ngqeza said.
“What we are humbly requesting the court to consider will also assist the victims,” he said.
But Claassen was not easily convinced.
“If you want me to consider repayments I want both the bank statements of your client and Khayasanda Trading Enterprises [her company] for the past 12 months so I can see profits and incomes,” Claassen said.
Mangcaka, a sole member of Khayasanda Trading Enterprises and its operational manager, used the company between 2012 and 2013 to scam the pensioners to entrust her with their money.
A 76-year-old pensioner, Vuyiswa Simama, is listed as Mangcaka’s first victim out of the known nine.
The woman fell prey to the scam in 2012 and deposited R70,000 in Mangcaka’s business FNB bank account, following an initial meeting with one of Khayasanda’s employees in 2010.
According to court documents, Mangcaka had informed Simama that she had stock brokers inside banks who did trading for her clients on the JSE.
The accused further advised Simama to trade on the stock exchange.
Mangcaka is said to have received her ill-gotten gains using the same modus operandi.
The fraudster told the victims she would invest their money on the JSE and that the money would only be used to buy shares.
She promised annual returns of up 20%.
When the returns did not materialise, “the accused had various excuses”, the court documents read.
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