Man who ‘defrauded’ City of Tshwane of R53m gets R100K bail

Ivo Gunter Wegrostek, 62, who allegedly stole R53m that was designated for the National Fund for Municipality Workers (NFMW) in the City of Tshwane Municipality, appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

Wegrostek – who has been charged with fraud, money laundering and corruption – was granted bail of R100,000 with strict conditions, including travel restrictions. He must also report daily to the Douglasdale police station.

According to Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi the case was postponed to February 26, 2020.

“The Hawks’ National Clean Audit Task Team, deployed in the City of Tshwane Municipality, conducted a special operation on Wednesday and arrested him for allegedly stealing the money from the municipality’s bank account on August 30, 2019,” Mulaudzi said.

“The team worked tirelessly upon receiving the case on September 3, 2019, and last month, it conducted a search and seizure operation at the suspect’s business and residential addresses where several computers, cellphones and debit cards were seized.”

Mulaudzi claimed “overwhelming evidence” proved he was part of a criminal syndicate that operated locally and internationally.

“Subsequently, through intensive investigations, the team detected that the stolen funds were allegedly laundered from his company, SASGOLD (Pty) Ltd, into several business and relatives’ bank accounts locally and internationally.

“The team then successfully managed to seize and freeze several funds in certain accounts relating to the stolen R53m,” Mulaudzi said.

He added more arrests were expected as the investigation by the task team was continuing.

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