Pretoria - Six members of an illegal gold trading syndicate, busted by South African Revenue Services (SARS) officials, are expected to appear in the Boksburg District Court on Friday.
The six accused face various charges, including racketeering, money laundering, fraud and serious tax offenses.
They were arrested by the members of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the Hawks, in May and July this year.
The syndicate is alleged to have fabricated over 16 000 fraudulent invoices - worth about R437 million - to reflect purchases of second-hand gold jewellery.
These fictitious purchases were used in claiming a fraudulent 14% notional Value Added Tax input over the period from 2010 to 2012, as well as understating their sales during the same period.
Two other individuals, suspected of being members of a syndicate that follow the same modus operandi, were arrested on 9 October 2015.
According to the police, the illicit gold industry poses a multi-billion rand risk to SARS. – SAnews.gov.za
