Swaziland-based Ghanaian footballer Frank Nana Antwi accused of FRAUD

Published on: 07 December 2020

Swaziland-based Ghanaian footballer Frank Nana Antwi has been accused of defrauding his former girlfriend in a massive scam. 

The former Mbabane Swallows, Mbabane Highlanders, Moneni Pirates and Sikhalo player is under investigations over the fraud allegations.

He is accused of hacking  a South African elderly businesswoman’s email account and fraudulently made requests to Sanlam South Africa of over R7 million to be transferred from her investment accounts.

A bank account of a liSwati woman, who is a former girlfriend of the Ghanaian, was allegedly used as conduit to commit the crime.

The account is held with FNB Eswatini.

The Ghanaian national allegedly caused the money to be transferred from the South African businesswoman, Sandra Cohen’s investment accounts under the guise that she had moved to Eswatini and intended to purchase Summerfield Botanical Gardens and Exclusive Resort.

The footballer, Frank Nana Antwi, played for Mbabane Swallows, Mbabane Highlanders, Moneni Pirates and Sikhalo.

Committed 

He is alleged to have committed the fraud with the assistance of his Nigerian friend, Patrick.

As a result of the fraud, Sanlam South Africa transferred an amount of R4 900 000, the equivalent of E4 900 000, to the First National Bank Eswatini account held by Antwi’s former girlfriend, Sebenzile Vilakati (32) of Dvokolwako. Vilakati worked at a beauty salon at Ngwane Park.

The amount that Antwi and Patrick allegedly defrauded Sanlam is E7 450 000.

Part of the money was transferred from Sanlam to bank accounts in South Africa.

A bulk of the E4 900 000 that was transferred to Eswatini, according to FNB, was wired to offshore accounts within a week and only E649 281.35 remained in Vilakati’s account.

The money was fraudulently de-invested from policies Cohen (80) held with Sanlam.

Cohen, a resident of 3 North Shore, Umhlanga, had two accounts with Sanlam, an equity account which held R12 394 994.85 and money market with R2 171 108.28.

Meanwhile, the director of public prosecutions has approached the court for a preservation order under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA), 2018 to prevent anyone from dealing with the amount of E649 352.81 remaining in Vilakati’s account.

A preservation order precedes an order for forfeiture under the Act.

According to the Head of the Asset Forfeiture Unit, Elsie Matsebula, the cash has been shown to be proceeds of crime.

Antwi and Patrick allegedly sent an email to Sanlam, which was received by Assistant Portfolio Manager Joy Tattam on September 30, 2019.

Matsebula told the court that the author of the email presented him or herself as Cohen. She said investigations later revealed that Cohen was not the author of the email and that her email account had been hacked.

Sender

Matsebula submitted that the sender of the email requested to update Cohen’s contact numbers in respect of her two accounts with the investment company. The contact number was changed from Cohen’s known cellphone number to 071 242 5653. Tattam is said to have made the update as requested by the sender of the email.

Matsebula said on April 15, 2020, Sanlam received another instruction through Cohen’s email account requesting to add a bank account held with FNB Eswatini on the profile of the elderly woman’s accounts. Tattam requested a signed instruction, proof of banking details on an official letter stamped by the bank in order to add the account.

The sender told Tattam via email that the required documents would be sent after the lockdown due to COVID-19.

The documents were sent on May 25, 2020 by email to add the FNB Eswatini account.

FNB Eswatini Manzini Branch Administrator Ntombikayise Gina appeared as the signatory to the information given in respect of the FNB documents attached to the email.

Signature

However, Gina disputed the signature on the documents and being author of same. It transpired that the FNB Eswatini account 62773461125 did not belong to Cohen, but to Antwi’s former lover, Vilakati. It was also established that Cohen does not have a bank account in Eswatini.

According to Matsebula, Vilakati was requested by Antwi in March 2020 to use her FNB bank account and she agreed.

She said she did not use the account because she had stopped working during the lockdown and had issues with her South African boyfriend who stopped sending her money.

Vilakati said since she had another account at Standard Bank, she permitted Antwi to use her FNB account.

Vilakati told investigators that in May this year, Antwi, who was in the company of Patrick, requested her to change her contacts with the bank to his number, 78142510.

She said after changing the contact, she stopped receiving information about any activity in the account.

Matsebula informed the court that another email was sent to Sanlam through Cohen’s email account on May 29, 2020 requesting a transfer of R950 000 (E950 000) from the elderly woman’s Money Market Fund to the FNB Eswatini account.

It was alleged in the email that Cohen intended to purchase Summerfield Botanical Gardens and Exclusive Resort and the money was required to pay a deposit. Tattam is said to have responded to the email and requested that Cohen confirm the request to transfer the cash.

Tattam, according to Matsebula, sent an email to another Sanlam employee, Thembi Ndlela, to process the payment of R950 000. Ndlela is said to have sent another email to Kate Makhwasa, another employee of Sanlam, to transfer the money as per the instruction received through Cohen’s email.

The transfer was made on the same day, May 29, 2020, and E950 000 was credited to Vilakati’s FNB account, which at the time held only E340.

Matsebula submitted that on the following day, E495 270.33 was allegedly transferred from Vilakati’s account and on the same day another transfer from the account was made of E410 268.23.

Transfers

Matsebula said the two transfers were followed by two ATM withdrawals of E8 000 and E2 000, leaving a balance of E34 318.25 in the account.

Antwi and Patrick allegedly made yet another request on June 3, 2020 via Cohen’s email for a transfer of R4 million from the elderly woman’s investment account.

The contents of the email detailed that Cohen had failed to secure a loan to the amount of E9 million required to purchase Summerfield and she needed the money quickly.  On June 9, 2020, a further promptly was addressed to Sanlam Portfolio Manager Tim Firth, through Cohen’s email address, making a demand to sell shares from her Aspen Pharmaceutical Holdings Investment and to transfer R4 million to the account in Eswatini.

The money was transferred on June 12, 2020 to Vilakati’s account in Eswatini.

Deposited 

According to Matsebula: “The deposited funds were quickly wired out of the jurisdiction leaving a balance of E649 280.35. These transfers were effected within a week.”

She said the narrations of the transactions were disguised as payments for machinery and sanitisers.

On June 25, 2020, Tattam allegedly received a further email through Cohen’s email address, requesting to link an FNB Platinum Account to Cohen’s profile.

The reason given was that charges against the Gold account were expensive. According to the email, there was an intention to further de-invest more money in order to renovate the purportedly purchased resort, Summerfield, upon receipt of a title deed.

Again, Tattam requested a letter of authority and a written confirmation from the bank and on the same day received two documents. They were a letter of authorisation purportedly from Cohen and a bank statement in her name. Matsebula said the account was held in South Africa, but the statement bore a stamp for FNB Eswatini. Tattam responded to the email to the effect that the update had been made. On June 29, 2020, Tattam received an email instructing that R2.5 million be transferred into the FNB Platinum Account. Tattam forwarded the email to Firth, the Porfolio Manager, to contact Cohen and ask her if she had requested the payment. Cohen, according to Matsebula, confirmed telephonically with Firth that she did not authorise any of the de-investments with Sanlam.

She disputed in an affidavit that she had utilised her email to authorise all the transactions with Sanlam. Cohen’s daughter, Tamara Schneiderman (53), who is a lawyer, said in an affidavit, she was contacted by Firth and he asked her if her mother was in Eswatini.

She said she told him that Cohen was in Umhlanga, South Africa.

Request 

“He further told me that there was a request for money to be transferred to her in Swaziland (Eswatini). He told me the money was already transferred. He told me the share account to the value of R4 800 000 was transferred to a false account. I informed my mother about it.”

Matsebula told the court that the transfer of the two amounts, R950 000 and R4 million to Vilakati’s account by Sanlam was made due to a fraudulent misrepresentation believed to have been allegedly, made by Antwi. Vilakati told investigators that Antwi requested to use her FNB account because he was selling a chemical, known as catalyst, found in Honda Fit exhaust pipes. She said Antwi told her that he was selling powder in Lesotho.

Source: Times of Swaziland

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