A suspected kingpin of a multimillion-rand abalone enterprise told the Eastern Cape High Court (Port Elizabeth) this week that he was too uneducated to know that he needed to declare tax to the SARS while living the high life. According to a report on the IoL site, Julian Brown, a high school dropout, was testifying at his trial where he is being prosecuted for a string of charges which include racketeering between January 2015 and April 2016.

Brown is accused of heading the enterprise alongside Eugene ‘Boesman’ Victor and Brandon Turner, allegedly his right-hand men. He said that he made up to R500 000 per month in turnover from his construction company J&B Construction.

‘I didn't declare tax; when I left school I didn't have an education about tax,’ he said. Prosecutor Martin le Roux put it to Brown that SARS instituted court proceedings against him to compel him to complete a lifestyle audit.

‘Fact is that you were not registered as a taxpayer and you had to go and see a lawyer to give an explanation as to where all this wealth was coming from,’ said Le Roux. Brown claimed that the police nabbed the wrong person and the real kingpin in the abalone enterprise was a De Villers who ‘never got his hands dirty’.

However, a string of associates who allegedly helped Brown build up the abalone enterprise, lining their own pockets in the process, have testified against him. The trial continues.

Full report on the IoL site