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Two sisters from Pretoria have been caught for allegedly defrauding the food and packaged goods group Premier of R137 million by diverting payments from suppliers to their own bank accounts.

The Hawks arrested and charged Barbara van Zyl, 54, and Christa Smith, 53, in early August, who now face up to 30 years in jail if found guilty under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, per News24.

Van Zyl and Smith joined the company, which produces Impala maize meal, Snowflake flour, and Blue Ribbon bread, in 2002 and 2008, respectively.

Barbara van Zyl / image source: LinkedIn

A couple of years down the line, the siblings came up with their scam, creating a company called ABC Fire Project – of which Van Zyl was its sole director, and Smith had signing powers over its bank account.

Police say that, in 2016, the siblings allegedly used their senior positions at Premier to get a large customer to start paying for goods into their ABC Fire account rather than Premier’s. Some of these payments were made in cash.

A whopping R137 million is said to have been paid into the sisters’ bank account by a single customer somewhere between 2016 and 2020.

The Hawks have accused the sisters of trying to cover their tracks by creating bogus debit and credit entries and shuffling funds between bank accounts.

Police say the pair would allegedly allocate funds received from other Premier debtors to the account of “their” customer, falsely creating the impression that payments had been made.

The pair intend to plead not guilty to all these allegations, even though Van Zyl – attempting to explain that the funds that flowed into ABC Fire’s account were the result of legitimate business transactions – could only produce invoices for R45 000, not the R137 million that investors identified.

The Hawks have not yet said what they believe the sisters did with the funds. A trustees’ report shows that the sisters used the money to open other businesses, sending some to “family members and other acquaintances to purchase assets, properties and businesses”.

Both women even had previous convictions. Smith was caught for driving with a fake driver’s licence in 2007, and Van Zyl for cheque fraud in 2001.

[source:news24]