Ex-FNB staffer charged over R400,000 theft from wealthy German’s account

A former FNB employee has been arrested for allegedly stealing R400,000 from a German national’s bank account.

Lwando Dingiswayo, 30, is set appear in the Gqeberha specialised commercial crime court on September 29. The Hawks arrested him on Wednesday.

Hawks spokesperson Capt Yolisa Mgolodela said Dingiswayo is facing a raft of charges including fraud and contravention of the Electronics Communications and Transactions Act.

“It is alleged that between December 8 2017 and February 14 2018, the FNB investment account of a German national was accessed by two FNB employees,” she said.

“The contact information of the account holder was changed, the signing authority on the account was cancelled and a new signing authority was granted to a fictitious John Mackay who supposedly formed part of a syndicate.

“Mackay is further alleged to have transferred funds from the investment account to the client’s cheque account and attempted to withdraw money from the cheque account without success.

“When the transaction was unsuccessful and the account was put on hold, Mackay somehow managed to transfer the balance of R400,000 in the investment account to a Standard Bank account that was opened using fraudulent documentation.

“The money was successfully withdrawn from the Standard Bank account before the account was frozen shortly afterwards.”

Mgolodela said the German was not in SA when the fraudulent activities happened.

“The account had R6m but had an actual loss of only R400​,000 after several failed fraudulent transac­tions,” she said.

“The Hawks team received the complaint in March 2018 for investigation which led to the subsequent arrest of Dingiswayo on September 15 2021.”

Dingiswayo appeared in court on Wednesday and was released on R1,000 bail. Mgolodela said further arrests are “imminent”.

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