TROUBLE is brewing for a prominent businessman facing multiple charges over him allegedly being at the centre of a racket regarding the theft of imported premium coffee beans belonging to a multinational food and beverages company.
George Charalambus was first charged with theft and money laundering stemming from the alleged siphoning of coffee beans that were imported from Vietnam by Nestle.
It has been alleged that Charalambus colluded with two employees, Richard Seaman and Selvanathan Chetty, from a warehousing company based at Durban’s Maydon Wharf, which received and moved Nestle’s imported coffee to their factory in Estcourt.
But Seaman and Chetty allegedly skimmed off a portion of Nestle’s imported beans on 14 occasions between January and November 2015 and sold it to Charalambus, who ran a stock salvage business.
Charalambus then sold the coffee beans to Johannesburg-based businesses and pocketed around R6 million.
Nestle were alerted to the theft of their imported goods and hired a private investigator to monitor proceedings and their suspicions were confirmed.
Police arrested Charalambus in November 2015, along with Seaman and Chetty, after they had found a consignment of coffee beans at his business premises.
All three were subsequently granted bail.
However, Charalambus landed in further trouble after he and his employee Balasundren “Francis” Kistensamy allegedly attempted to bribe two Hawks investigators with cash in exchange for the stolen coffee beans' official case docket.
A trap was set in February 2016 and the businessman and Kistensamy were arrested after they allegedly paid the bribe.
Both Charalambus and Kistensamy were granted bail in that matter, which has since progressed to trial stage and is due to reconvene later this month before magistrate Shoba Maharaj in the Durban Regional Court, in respect of corruption related charges.
State advocate Val Dafel is handling the prosecution.
The trial for the alleged theft of Nestle’s coffee beans will also be in the Regional Court, commencing at the end of the month.
Magistrate Fariedha Mohamed will preside over the matter, with Senior State advocate Mahen Naidu prosecuting.
Seaman, Chetty and Charalambus face 14 counts of theft.
Seaman and Chetty will also be required to answer for the same 14 counts of money laundering brought against them in respect of the R10 000 they allegedly received each time beans were diverted to the businessman.
The 14 money laundering charges Charalambus faces relate to him selling the stolen goods.
According to the charge sheet, Nestle, the complainant, brought in a consignment of coffee beans weighing just over 20 tons in a rubber bladder on a monthly basis.
When it landed at the contracted warehousing company, it was re-bagged into 1-ton canvas bags before being moved to Nestle’s plant in Estcourt.
That’s when approximately 100kg was allegedly skimmed off each of the 20 bags at the warehouse before being diverted to Charalambus’s business premises on various occasions.
Nestle received a tip-off about the theft and hired a private investigator.
After doing surveillance, the investigator found that some of the bags of coffee had been moved to an unfamiliar warehouse.
When the police got involved, they found the warehouse belonged to Charalambus and they also traced the companies that bought the stolen coffee beans.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE