Pretoria - Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) Commissioner Teboho Maruping has welcomed the conviction of a couple that cheated the UIF's Covid-19 temporary employer-employee relief scheme (Covid-19 Ters) out of more than R10 million.
Moroko Moremi, aged 37, and his wife Treasure Moremi, aged 34, were found guilty of fraud by the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court. This was after the couple, who are directors of Denmeng Trading, applied for Covid-19 Ters for 553 workers, when, in fact, they employed only 22 people.
“However, joint efforts by the UIF’s investigators, law enforcement agencies at the fusion centre, such as the Hawks, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), led to the couple’s successful arrest and conviction,” said Maruping.
The Moremis are scheduled to be sentenced on 17 May.
Maruping vowed that employers who pocketed Covid-19 Ters money from government, and did not use the money for the intended benefit, must be worried.
“I hope the latest conviction and arrests send a strong message to other would-be fraudsters that the long arm of the law will always catch up with you. Those who have helped themselves to funds earmarked for workers during the lockdown should always remember that the law is creeping towards them, and they will not have any peace,” he said.
“We will not tolerate the siphoning of workers’ benefits by unscrupulous individuals. All fraudsters are on notice, and we hope more suspects are arrested and sent straight to jail.”
Maruping said every complaint of siphoning of the Covid-19 Ters money would be investigated thoroughly.
“Working together with law enforcement agencies, we will follow every lead pointing towards suspected fraud. We also thank the public for being vigilant about the abuse of Covid-19 Ters funds by blowing the whistle to us,” he said.
To date, there have been four convictions of individuals who have defrauded the UIF of the Covid-19 Ters funds.
More convictions are expected as 15 cases have been referred to the Special Investigative Unit for further investigation.
In 2020, the UIF embarked on its “follow the money” project and close to R900 million has since been recovered.
The project is expected to resume in April 2022, upon the appointment of audit firms, and it is anticipated that additional recoveries will be made, and more arrests will take place as fraudulent claims are uncovered.
IOL