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The former CFO of VBS, who received R5 million of the R2.5 billion allegedly looted from the mutual bank, will spend seven years in prison.
On Wednesday, Phillip Truter pleaded guilty to fraud, corruption, extortion, theft and money laundering in Palmridge’s business crimes court. He also agreed to help the state with how funds from the defunct bank were looted.
Truter was sentenced to 10 years, three of which were suspended. He is the first senior executive to be sentenced in the VBS affair.
The other seven defendants, who have indicated that they will plead not guilty, are expected to make their second appearance Thursday.
They are: Former VBS Chairman Tshifhiwa Matodzi, Former CEO Andile Ramavhunga, Former Treasurer Phophi Mukhodobwane, Former KPMG Auditor Sipho Malaba, Former Non-Executive Director of VBS, Lieutenant General Avhashoni Ramikosi, as well as Ernest Nesane and Paul Magula, who represented the Public Investment Corporation as non-executive directors on the board of directors.
Sipho Ngwema, the spokesperson for the National Tax Authority (NPA), welcomed Truter’s ruling and said the convicted scammer would work closely with the state. “Law enforcement agencies always encourage whistleblowers or defendants who want to open up to make a full, frank, honest and open disclosure about their involvement and ill-gotten gains,” Ngwema said.
“There are times, especially in the area of corruption, when law enforcement will need the cooperation of insiders. Any of these schemes is quite closed and only a very close internal group will have the knowledge of the shenanigans that occurred. Someone like Truter who chooses to take responsibility for his actions will always be encouraged to speak to the state and that honesty is welcome. Corruption can be effectively conquered from within.
“Other stages of the VBS investigation by the Hawks and the NPA are progressing well,” he added.
In July, in an affidavit read in court by the fraudster’s attorney, WJ Hattingh, Cornelia Truter detailed how her husband had been mentally tormented after the publication of The Great Bank Heist, defender Terry Motau’s forensic report, which flew the cover on alleged corruption at VBS in October 2018. The report was commissioned by the Reserve Bank of South Africa.
Cornelia Truter said her husband had premonitions and religious revelations, which required the intervention of their family pastor. He was admitted to the Vista Psychiatric Clinic in Centurion. The hallucinations that haunted her husband and the fear of a mental breakdown had fueled her desire to open up, the affidavit said.
At a bail hearing held in June, the other seven defendants who declared themselves indigent were released on bail of 100,000 rand, after asking for amounts of 10,000 to 50,000 rand to be set.
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