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Ex-Square One bosses jailed for 25 years

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 17 Aug 2017
Garth Coetser, Anton Meyer and Clifford Stevens were each slapped with a 25-year prison sentence.
Garth Coetser, Anton Meyer and Clifford Stevens were each slapped with a 25-year prison sentence.

Former Square One chairman Garth Coetser and his two co-accused, Anton Meyer and Clifford Stevens, were each sentenced to an effective 25-year prison sentence for defrauding the South African Revenue Service (SARS) of R216 million.

The three were sentenced yesterday at the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.

Earlier this month, the trio was convicted of fraud, forgery and money laundering after submitting value-added tax (VAT) returns seeking refunds, used as part of a scam, they were not entitled to.

Marius Oosthuizen, a senior advocate in the Specialised Tax Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), says the effective term of imprisonment is 25 years - 25 years for fraud, 25 years for forgery and 25 years for uttering.

Additionally, they were given 20 years for money laundering. However, the sentences were ordered to run concurrently for 25 years.

"Due to the seriousness of the matter and the volume of work involved, two state advocates were allocated to prosecute this matter. I was assisted in the matter by advocate Nerissa Reddy," says Oosthuizen.

"The accused were convicted of defrauding SARS by submitting 198 fraudulent VAT refunds from 2007 to 2010. NPA and SARS will severely deal with persons who defraud SARS," he adds.

ITWeb has been closely following the trial, which has been postponed on several occasions, since 2010.

It was the state's case that the three acted as directors and representatives of 18 entities and, acting with common purpose with one another, operated a fraudulent VAT scheme. The scheme ran from January 2007 to March 2010.

After all the arguments were heard, earlier this month, acting judge Mathew Klein said: "It is my view that the state has, indeed, discharged its onus and the accused's involvement in the VAT scheme has been proven beyond reasonable doubt."

Square One, which was founded in 1986 and listed on the JSE in 2000, had several operating entities. It owned all of Structured Infrastructure Solutions, Square One Technology Solutions, Square One Managed Services, Square One Group Operations, Square One Solutions and 51% of Square One Capital.

The company was liquidated towards the end of September 2010, because of its "precarious cash flow situation". Meyer is also a former Square One director, but stepped down from his position in 2007.

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