Mastermind Behind VBS Bank Collapse Sentenced to 495 years imprisonment
Tshifiwa Matodzi (47), the former chairperson of the defunct VBS Mutual Bank Board was on Wednesday sentenced to 495 years in prison.
He was sentenced in the Pretoria high court after he pleaded guilty to 33 charges.
Matodzi, the primary accused in the case which involved severe offences including corruption, theft, fraud, money laundering, and a pattern of racketeering activities that culminated in the downfall of VBS Mutual Bank, pleaded guilty to 33 charges.
He was jailed for 15 years on each count, but the sentences will run concurrently.
As part of a plea and sentence agreement, Matodzi admitted to being personally involved in the theft of the billions of rand from 2017 to 2018, by creating fictitious credit in VBS accounts that was then transferred to other accounts.
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Almost R2bn was looted in the scandal, leading to the bank’s collapse that devastated many municipalities and individual depositors, many of them elderly.
The National Head of the DPCI, Lieutenant General Lebeya, has welcomed the outcome of the case.
“This outcome underscores the commitment of the DPCI and the justice system to holding individuals accountable for their actions, particularly those that significantly harm the financial sector and public trust. The DPCI remains steadfast in its pursuit of justice and ensuring that such offences do not go unpunished,” he said.
“The DPCI will not relent in its mission to bring criminals to justice. We are actively pursuing other suspects in this case, and they too will face the full might of the law.”
Mastermind Behind VBS Bank Collapse Sentenced to 495 years imprisonment