A suitcase stuffed with R5m was flown to Johannesburg by helicopter and handed to a Public Investment Corporation (PIC) executive as a bribe from VBS, according to an affidavit by the broke mutual bank’s former head of treasury, Phophi Mukhodobwane. He says he received R10m for his part in defrauding VBS of just over R1.5bn, and spent R6.5m of his windfall on a Ferrari.

This was revealed in a Sunday Times report, which says Mukhodobwane’s affidavit lays bare the full extent of the deception that led to a liquidity crisis at VBS – which appears to have doomed it to closure (see report below) – including how executives at rail agency Prasa received bribes to invest R1bn with VBS.

The admission is contained in an affidavit deposed by the curator of VBS bank who is seeking the urgent liquidation of the assets of the bank’s holding company, Vele Investments, as well as the sequestration of the assets of five executives at both Vele and VBS.

The report says Mukhodobwane’s admission blows the lid off an elaborate scheme devised by executives at Vele who used suspense accounts to defraud VBS of slightly more than R1.5bn to purchase subsidiary companies, pay themselves millions in bonuses and fund their lavish lifestyles. Mukhodobwane reportedly told VBS curator Anoosh Rooplal during investigations into how the bank’s money disappeared that on 8 April 2017 he was instructed to deliver the R5m by Vele Investments chair Tshifhiwa Matodzi. ‘I asked him what the money was for and he advised me that the funds were intended for a senior executive at the PIC. He said this was so that we could receive swift support with regard to bank funding that was needed.’

The PIC, which has a 25% stake in VBS, extended a R350m credit facility to the bank to be used for the financing of fuel transactions. There was also an application for the PIC to inject R2bn into the bank before it was placed under curatorship, notes the Sunday Times report. It says Rooplal has filed an urgent application in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) for the liquidation of Vele Investments, and a further application for the sequestration of the five Vele and VBS directors implicated.

These are Matodzi, a former chairperson of VBS; Robert Madzonga, the former chief operations officer at the bank; Andile Ramavhunga, former CEO of VBS; Philip Truter, former chief financial officer; and Mukhudobwane.

Rooplal’s application describes how the five met at Matodzi’s house at the exclusive Eagle Canyon golf estate, west of Johannesburg, and planned the looting spree to the tune of R1.5bn. ‘All of the victims of the fraudulent scheme entrusted VBS with personal savings and/or public funds.

‘The victims may therefore be classified as the South African people,’ Rooplal states in the affidavit.

Full Sunday Times report (subscription needed)