Rustenburg – An Eastern Cape lawyer who claimed to have been bewitched or made by the devil to commit fraud and money laundering was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Thursday.
According to NPA spokesperson in the Eastern Cape, Luxolo Tyali, Yandisa Babalwa Mjikelo, 36, was sentenced in the Mthatha Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
“Mjikelo, an attorney responsible for the administration of estates at Mthatha-based law firm Vapi Incorporated Attorneys, pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and four counts of money laundering.
“For sentencing, the fraud charges were treated as one, the same as the money laundering charges.
“The court sentenced her to 15 years imprisonment on each of the charges and ordered them to run concurrently,” Tyali said.
He said in mitigation of sentence, Mjikelo claimed to have been bewitched or made by the devil to commit the acts.
He said in the period between June 2017 and October 2019, Mjikelo defrauded four late estate accounts of amounts ranging between R128 000 and R1.4 million, due to beneficiaries of the deceased persons.
“Instead of opening late estate accounts, as per the Administration of Estate Act, Mjikelo colluded with persons unknown to them and opened accounts to which she made the monies due to estates to be deposited.
“She then made cash withdrawals from those accounts, deposited cash into other accounts, effected electronic transfers and ‘invested’ some in Bitcoin.”
He said when family members of the late estates became suspicious, they approached the law firm’s director, Sifundo Vapi, who opened a case with the police.
‘Subsequent investigations exposed a web of transactions made by Mjikelo to conceal and disguise the nature, source, location and movement of the funds between different accounts.
“In mitigation of sentence, Mjikelo claimed to have been bewitched or made by the devil to commit the acts,” he said.
IOL