Sunday, July 8, 2018 - 'VBS paid R5m bribe to PIC executive'

VBS Mutual Bank
Source - https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/2018-07-07-vbs-paid-r5m-bribe-to-pic-executive/
Where - South Africa, Republic of
Cost - 1,500,000,000 ZAR
Business line - Corporate Services
Copyright © Times Live (www.timeslive.co.za) 2018

An oversized suitcase stuffed with R5-million was flown to Johannesburg in a helicopter and handed to a Public Investment Corporation executive as a bribe from VBS, according to an affidavit by the broke bank’s former head of treasury.

In the affidavit, Phophi Mukhodobwane says he received R10-million for his part in defrauding VBS of just more than R1.5-billion, and spent R6.5-million of his windfall on a Ferrari.

Mukhodobwane told VBS curator Anoosh Rooplal he delivered the R5-million to Tshifhiwa Matodzi, chairman of VBS holding company Vele Investments, who told him it was for a senior PIC executive “so that we could receive swift support with regard to bank funding ... [what] was needed”.

The affidavit lays bare the full extent of the deception and trickery that led to a liquidity crisis at VBS, including how executives at rail agency Prasa received bribes to invest R1-billion with VBS and how middlemen were paid to convince municipalities to invest funds with the bank.