Disbarred lawyer Peet Viljoen will remain in custody for at least another week after the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court postponed his bail application to 26 June 2026.

The Citizen reports that Viljoen made a brief appearance in court yesterday following his arrest at OR Tambo International Airport, shortly after landing in SA.

Viljoen was deported from the US, where he and his wife, Mel Viljoen, were arrested on allegations of shoplifting. The NPA said it intends to oppose Viljoen’s release on bail.

Spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana told broadcaster eNCA that the accused faces a schedule five offence and that prosecutors still need time to verify residential addresses provided by his wife.

‘He’s facing a total of 400 charges. These charges include corruption, fraud, theft, perjury and forgery,’ said Mahanjana. She said the state was not in a position to proceed with the bail application because key investigations were still underway.

According to the state, the addresses supplied by Viljoen’s wife are located outside Gauteng, requiring further verification before the bail application can proceed.

Viljoen is facing fraud-related charges linked to alleged unlawful property sales dating back to 2010. The Hawks confirmed that investigators have been working on the matter for more than a decade.

Viljoen is expected to return to the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on 26 June, where the state is expected to oppose his application for bail.

Viljoen allegedly created a trail of fake resolutions, affidavits, and powers of attorney to convince unsuspecting buyers that City of Johannesburg (COJ) properties were for sale, reports News24.

The allegations are detailed in a 74-page charge sheet, which identifies him as a central figure in an alleged scheme to unlawfully transfer and sell Johannesburg Property Company (JPC) properties to unsuspecting purchasers in 2010, resulting in losses worth tens of millions of rands.

According to the NPA, 46 JPC properties were sold between January and March 2010. 

The man who once flaunted his ‘lavish’ lifestyle in the US on social media now stands accused of 400 charges, including fraud, theft, forgery, unlawfully passing off forged documents as genuine and corruption – which exceeded R27.6m, according to the charge sheet.

The NPA said neither the city nor the JPC had agreed to any of the properties being sold.

'The JPC and the COJ had no knowledge that the properties were being sold,' the charge sheet read.

Annexures show dozens of properties changing hands – or allegedly being lined up to change hands – being sold to different buyers in suburbs that included Bryanston, Fourways and Craighall.

According to the NPA, Viljoen and his co-accused told investors that a company called Eildoug Investments had legally bought the properties from the city and was now offering them on to investors.

In truth, Eildoug appeared to have been a largely dormant shell company, with the police saying it did not even have its own bank account.

The company’s nominal director was a colleague of one of Viljoen’s co-accused.

Full report in The Citizen

Full News24 report