An IT manager was remanded in custody in the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court and is awaiting sentencing for attempting to extort money from two companies.
The accused, Dustin Steele who was employed by a KwaZulu-Natal management company admitted to attempted extortion from the companies.
He had contacted a major fast-food company on 7 August this year and claimed to be in possession of damning confidential information on them. He demanded to be paid in cryptocurrencies for his silence. The company didn’t respond to him and instead reported the incident to the police’s forensic unit.
The accused repeated the attempted extortion with a major retail group on 16 August telling them that he had damning information on leaked data about their software. He again demanded to be paid in cryptocurrencies to silence him. The company also reported the incident to the forensic unit prompting an investigation. He was traced and arrested.
In his plea, he claimed to have been in financial strain and was also unable to post a R5 000 bail granted to him.
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