KZN man handed 15-year jail term for running ponzi scheme

A 61-year-old man from KwaZulu-Natal has been sentenced to 15 years in jail for running a ponzi scheme.

Yunus Moolla appeared in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday, where the sentence was handed down.

Charges

Hawks spokesperson Captain Simphiwe Mhlongo said the court sentenced Moolla for multiple charges of fraud, contravention of the Bank Act, contravention of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Service Act as well as money laundering.

“During the period of 2013 to 2015, Moolla recruited people to invest in his company called Carmol Distributors. He claimed that his company was dealing in petrol and diesel. Moolla promised investors a monthly profit of 2 to 8 percent.”

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“It was discovered that the company was not registered to operate as a financial service institution,” Mhlongo said.

A case of fraud was reported at the Durban North police station and a case docket was allocated to the Durban-based Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation for further investigation.

Arrest

Mhlongo added that Moolla was handcuffed in 2016 and appeared in court several times until he was found guilty in November last year.

“He was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for more than 3,700 counts of fraud, five years’ imprisonment for more than 4,000 counts of contravention of Bank Act, five years’ imprisonment for more than 3,700 counts of contravening of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Service Act.”

Sentence

Mhlongo said the sentences will run concurrently.

“Moolla was further sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for 11,397 counts of money laundering of which three years will run concurrent with ten years of fraud. He will serve 15 years direct imprisonment,” he said.

In 2018, the Sunday Tribune reported about how a Chatsworth widow struggled for four years because her late husband invested his life savings in an alleged Ponzi scheme run by Moolla’s Carmol Distributors.

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