Court documents filed by SARS’ Criminal and Illicit Economy Activities division in their sequestration case against alleged VBS Mutual Bank fixer-cum-businessman Kabelo Matsepe reveal that the taxman traced millions of undeclared rands, including 'commissions' from the bank, right into Matsepe’s pocket, writes Pauli van Wyk in a Scorpio report on the Daily Maverick site.

SARS now wants what it is owed: R61m in tax.

Scorpio makes the point its report is based on the court records available so far, which includes both parties’ affidavits, heads of argument and annexures. This is because it was denied access to the sequestration hearing yesterday – an issue the DM intends to report to the High Court, to the Chief Justice and to SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter.

On the matter at hand, Van Wyk's report says SARS also has its eye on another prize: a deep dive into widespread malfeasance at the bank – a door opened to it by provisions in the Insolvency Act.

In this way, rumours of Matsepe’s powerful backers may be further aired and tested.

Matsepe is the Limpopo businessman linked to Danny Msiza who received R35.4m in gratuitous money allegedly stolen from VBS and from the pockets of vulnerable depositors and municipalities.

Matsepe’s version is that the money was well-earned ‘commissions’ for linking municipalities to the bank, defined within the parameters of a contract.

To thrash out the facts of how and by whom VBS Bank was looted into insolvency and whether Matsepe’s ‘commission’ scheme was legal, Matsepe will answer to the criminal case brought against him and 13 co-accused in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria).

Matsepe and the bank’s managers, auditors, executive directors and other officials are charged with more than 180 counts of theft, fraud, money laundering, corruption, racketeering and contraventions of provisions in the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.

The SARS matter adds to Matsepe’s woes.

SARS says it is owed R61m in income tax and VAT for the 2015-to-2018 tax periods. This also includes non-declaration penalties and interest for non-payment, notes the Scorpio report.

Included in SARS’ heads of arguments is this line: upon the sequestration of Matsepe’s estate, he may be ‘interrogated and an investigation of his affairs may be conducted in which still further assets may be revealed’.

Advocate Terry Motau SC and law firm Werksmans, mandated by the Reserve Bank to investigate the fraud perpetrated against VBS Bank, had argued in their report titled The Great Bank Heist that Matsepe was but a front for the ANC Limpopo leader Msiza.

Matsepe, on the other hand, argues in his opposing papers that SARS has it all wrong. His main argument seems to hinge on the idea that SARS shouldn’t tax him, but rather the company of which he is the sole director, Mashate Investments, which was the main receiver of VBS ‘commissions’.

The taxman said this line of argument is unhelpful and Mashate Investments’ tax situation is ‘irrelevant’ for the sequestration case.

The upshot of yesterday's hearing is that the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) ruled in favour of SARS by granting a provisional sequestration order against the estate of Matsepe.

The taxman described Matsepe’s conduct as 'intentional tax evasion' and took a dim view on excuses of why he ignored their assessments – excuses which ranged from death in the family to depression and consequential forgetfulness.

It is now for Matsepe to persuade the court by December this year that he should not be sequestrated.

Full Scorpio report on the Daily Maverick site