A 74-year-old Sandton woman has spent the festive season mourning her brother, whose death she blames on fraudsters.
The fraudsters stole R2.7m after intercepting an email between to her financial adviser regarding the proceeds of a house sale.
In 2019, the siblings sold their mother’s house for R3m, with the proceeds intended for the brother. But the money was stolen when the woman was arranging to deposit it into an investment account.
Now the bedridden woman, who asked to remain anonymous, is involved in legal action to seek compensation from financial service providers and insurers, but has received little help from the police.
The fraud is believed to be part the growing business email compromise (BEC) scam. US law enforcement authorities are working with the SA Police Service to seek justice for hundreds of American victims of BEC fraudsters — mainly members of the Nigerian transnational organised crime group Black Axe — based in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
An alleged Black Axe member was arrested earlier this month by Interpol in Douglasdale, Johannesburg, regarding an FBI fraud case. Police spokesperson Brig Vish Naidoo said the 39-year-old Nigerian is wanted in the US for offences involving wire fraud and money laundering.
His arrest was the latest in a global crackdown on Black Axe, including the detention in October of eight men — six of whom are alleged leaders of Black Axe’s Cape Town Zone.
The suspects allegedly scammed 100 US victims out of $6.8m (about R107m). They are also charged with money laundering and identity theft.
Opposing bail for the suspects, prosecutor Robin Lewis told the Cape Town magistrate’s court that while the victims are American, law enforcement authorities are aware of the Cape Town Zone having targeted many more people worldwide.
“Law enforcement has identified additional victims in Germany, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos, the UK and Canada, all associated with Black Axe Cape Town,” Lweis said in to papers filed with the court.
“Internationally, proceeds of crime have been used to further fund criminal enterprises in SA and across the globe.”
The state’s evidence suggests Black Axe and sister organisation, the Neo Black Movement of Africa, have 56 to 150 members in the Cape Town Zone.
“Black Axe have used internet-based schemes to defraud victims in the US and elsewhere, Lewis said.
• 6,817: The number of complaints received by the FBI internet crime complaint centre in 2020 about 'confidence fraud' and romance scams
• 403: Complaints that reported the use of investments and virtual currencies
— IN NUMBERS
In its 2020 fraud report, the FBI internet crime complaint centre said it received 791,790 complaints of alleged fraud involving the loss of $4.1bn (about R65bn).
“Business email compromise schemes continued to be the costliest: 19,369 complaints with an adjusted loss of approximately $1.8bn,” the FBI reported. More than a quarter of the losses were sustained by victims older than 60.
Prof Gary Warner, director of research in computer forensics at University of Alabama at Birmingham, told the Sunday Times that almost every BEC fraud case he has researched pointed to Black Axe.
“Black Axe have used internet-based schemes to defraud victims in the US and elsewhere, and then used layered financial transactions and ‘money mules’ to launder the proceeds,” Prosecutor Lewis said.”
The woman opened a case at Sandton police station but has not been informed of any progress despite repeated calls.
“The investigating officer told me he would contact me every time,” she said. “‘I’ll call you tomorrow’, he’d say, but tomorrow never came. But even if they find the guys who did it, the money is gone, so what’s the point?”
The woman said her brother returned to SA from the US to take care of their mother after the death of their father.
The brother died in November after an accident at home, which the woman said could have been avoided if they had been able to afford carers.
“This money could have made a difference. I just can’t help to keep thinking my brother would have been living a better life, having a proper medical aid," she said.
Black Axe members pledge allegiance to a deity called Korofo, the unseen god, and see themselves as fighting against colonial oppression.
Their name comes from the Neo Black Movement symbol featuring a black axe cutting chains of oppression.
They have spies known as 'eyes' across Nigeria.
- Wikipedia
— WHO ARE THE BLACK AXE?
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