Divorcee found guilty of concealing shares worth R4m from husband

The state wants the court to send a woman to prison for hiding millions worth of shares from a liquidator appointed by court to wind up her and her husband's joint estate after their divorce.

Gonasundree Naidoo of Sandton was convicted of fraud for telling Prasothmen Naicker, the liquidator, that she had shares with her previous employer, Robor, and they were worth R2.1m whereas their value was double that amount.

However, Naicker in his investigations approached Robor and found that the shares were in fact worth R4m and that Naidoo had sold them and the money had been paid into her sister's bank account. .

Naicker then opened a fraud case against Naidoo, 55, who was subsequently found guilty.

Palm Ridge specialised commercial crimes magistrate Emmanuel Magampa said in his judgment that it remained incumbent upon Naidoo  to disclose the whole amount from the sale of the shares so that it can also be counted among the assets of the estate.

“The accused sold the Robor shares in 2013, got paid R4,056,270 and when she was asked to provide details of the assets and liabilities in 2014 this amount was not disclosed.

“In my view, that was a calculated intention to conceal the correct amount received upon the sale of the shares and there is no legal justification for that.

“If Mr Naicker were to rely solely on the information sourced from the accused relating to the shares, he would only take into account R2,112,000 and not R4,056,270. The difference between the two amounts is what constitutes prejudice to the estate and by extension to Mr Naidoo [ex-husband].

“It is correct that there is no actual prejudice as the estate is still to be divided. But there is certainly potential prejudice that would have materialised had Mr Naicker not found the true facts from Robor,” said Magampa.

On Friday, Naidoo appeared in court for sentencing where the probation officer argued for correctional supervision.

However, prosecutor Adv Bongani Chauke said the state is pushing for a custodial sentence. According to the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the minimum sentence in fraud cases involving more than R500,000 is 15 years.

The matter was postponed to May where Chauke is expected to call witnesses – including the ex-husband – to testify in aggravation of sentence.

In his judgment, Magampa said during the trial Naidoo had testified that she and her husband Suthanthiran were married in January 1995.

Following the problems in her marriage, she filed for divorce in May 2013 only to find that Suthanthiran had already divorced her a few months earlier in December 2012 without her knowledge.

She said Suthanthiran had wanted her to resign and sell the shares, threatening to come to her workplace and tell them that she was having an extramarital affair.  

Then one morning he dragged her out of bed saying he wanted to go and expose her to her boss and it was then that she decided to resign to protect her integrity.

According to Naidoo, she and Suthanthiran continued having strife and one day the police had to be called. From there she decided to leave the marital home and Suthanthiran told her to not take anything. As she did not even have her ID book, she arranged that the proceeds from the shares be paid into her sister's bank account.

According to Magampa, Naidoo also said Suthanthiran had wanted her to resign to get the share of the estate so that he could liquidate his debts.

She also said there was a time when she took the children on a holiday in Europe when they were still minors and Suthanthiran refused to sign for them to go unless he was included in the trip as well.

Some of the money was spent there as well, she said.

However, Magampa said the shares were part of the estate as at the time of the divorce and nothing changed after the dissolution of the marriage. The natural result thereof is that if they are sold, the proceeds thereof also fall under the joint estate, he said.

SowetanLIVE