Second suspect admits guilt over bank fraud

A Johannesburg businessman this week owned up to his part in a fraud scheme in which Standard Bank Namibia was fleeced of close to half a million Namibia dollars about eight years ago.

Judge Annel Silungwe is set to sentence self-confessed fraudster Carl Brune (49) in the High Court in Windhoek today, after Brune on Monday admitted that he was guilty on eight counts of fraud, to the tune of N$446 814. Brune offered the guilty plea on the day that his trial was supposed to continue after an almost four-month break.He pleaded not guilty on all eight fraud charges that he faced, and did not give any explanation for his plea, when his trial started before Judge Silungwe on January 20.By that time, Brune’s former co-accused in the case, Kenneth Victor Coetzee, had already served almost two months of an effective prison term of three years that he received after he had pleaded guilty to the same eight charges towards the end of October last year.Following Brune’s change of plea this week, both men have now admitted that they were partners in a fraudulent scheme through which Standard Bank Namibia was defrauded of some N$446 814 between July 1995 and November 1996.In that time, Coetzee was Manager:Network Control at Standard Bank Namibia; Brune was the Windhoek Branch Manager of a computer company, Unisys SA/Unidata.Although each of the two men have claimed that the other one was the one who initiated the idea of the fraud scheme, they have now admitted that they worked together to inflate the prices that the bank had to pay for computer equipment that it bought from Unisys/Unidata.While the computer company still received the correct, lower amounts of money that the equipment cost, Coetzee and Brune shared the difference between those amounts and the inflated amounts that they made the bank pay.A witness from the bank told the court in January that, after N$413 654 was recovered from Coetzee and N$16 285 from Brune, the loss to the bank due to the scheme still amounted to some N$28 000.This included legal and other costs related to efforts from the bank to recover the money that it had overpaid because of the fraud.According to Brune, in an explanation of his plea on Monday, about N$87 737 that the bank had overpaid for computer equipment was still in the Unisys/Unidata petty cash account in Windhoek, and had not yet been divided between him and Coetzee, at the time that the scheme was discovered in late 1996.According to the bank itself, only about N$35 770 was recovered from that account.After a suicide attempt early in 1997, he again rebuilt his life, until he had become a partner and director in a business in South Africa – all positions which he again lost when Interpol suddenly arrested him on the fraud charges in March 2002.He has since then once more started afresh, and is now involved in telecommunications work in South Africa and Mozambique.In his work in Mozambique, he and his business partners have employed about sixty people directly, he claimed.His defence counsel, Rean Strydom, from Johannesburg, told the court in his address on sentencing that Brune had suffered “severely” – both financially and psychologically – because of his admitted wrongdoing.Strydom asked the Judge not to send his client to prison, but to impose a fine on him instead.Public Prosecutor Job Kozonguizi asked the Judge to impose a sentence that would deter Brune and others from committing similar crimes.Brune remained free on N$10 000 bail until today.Brune offered the guilty plea on the day that his trial was supposed to continue after an almost four-month break.He pleaded not guilty on all eight fraud charges that he faced, and did not give any explanation for his plea, when his trial started before Judge Silungwe on January 20.By that time, Brune’s former co-accused in the case, Kenneth Victor Coetzee, had already served almost two months of an effective prison term of three years that he received after he had pleaded guilty to the same eight charges towards the end of October last year.Following Brune’s change of plea this week, both men have now admitted that they were partners in a fraudulent scheme through which Standard Bank Namibia was defrauded of some N$446 814 between July 1995 and November 1996.In that time, Coetzee was Manager:Network Control at Standard Bank Namibia; Brune was the Windhoek Branch Manager of a computer company, Unisys SA/Unidata.Although each of the two men have claimed that the other one was the one who initiated the idea of the fraud scheme, they have now admitted that they worked together to inflate the prices that the bank had to pay for computer equipment that it bought from Unisys/Unidata.While the computer company still received the correct, lower amounts of money that the equipment cost, Coetzee and Brune shared the difference between those amounts and the inflated amounts that they made the bank pay.A witness from the bank told the court in January that, after N$413 654 was recovered from Coetzee and N$16 285 from Brune, the loss to the bank due to the scheme still amounted to some N$28 000.This included legal and other costs related to efforts from the bank to recover the money that it had overpaid because of the fraud.According to Brune, in an explanation of his plea on Monday, about N$87 737 that the bank had overpaid for computer equipment was still in the Unisys/Unidata petty cash account in Windhoek, and had not yet been divided between him and Coetzee, at the time that the scheme was discovered in late 1996.According to the bank itself, only about N$35 770 was recovered from that account.After a suicide attempt early in 1997, he again rebuilt his life, until he had become a partner and director in a business in South Africa – all positions which he again lost when Interpol suddenly arrested him on the fraud charges in March 2002.He has since then once more started afresh, and is now involved in telecommunications work in South Africa and Mozambique.In his work in Mozambique, he and his business partners have employed about sixty people directly, he claimed.His defence counsel, Rean Strydom, from Johannesburg, told the court in his address on sentencing that Brune had suffered “severely” – both financially and psychologically – because of his admitted wrongdoing.Strydom asked the Judge not to send his client to prison, but to impose a fine on him instead.Public Prosecutor Job Kozonguizi asked the Judge to impose a sentence that would deter Brune and others from committing similar crimes.Brune remained free on N$10 000 bail until today.