An 80-year-old attorney, Solomon Slom, was granted R50,000 bail in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Monday after he was arrested for allegedly misappropriating R39 million from a trust fund.
Captain Lloyd Ramovha, Gauteng spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks, said a case was registered at Rosebank police station in February 2024.
The case was allocated to the Hawks’ serious commercial crime investigation unit.
“The accused was an attorney attached to Fluxman Attorneys. He was mandated to administer a client's account, which had about R45 million,” said Ramovha.
“An internal audit by his business partner revealed that he stole an amount of R39 million in over 140 transactions. These were distributed into his own personal bank accounts during the period from January 2019 to January 2024.”
Following the discovery, the Hawks said Slom tendered his resignation, with immediate effect.
When Slom appeared in court on Monday, his case was postponed to September 12 for disclosure of copies of the docket.
Last year, IOL reported that a former attorney was sentenced to a combined 55 years imprisonment for fraud amounting to over R4.8 million.
At the time, Hawks spokesperson in Western Cape, Zinzi Hani said that Rugaya van der Schyff, 57, a former attorney and conveyancer was sentenced in the Bellville Serious Commercial Crimes Court on 48 charges ranging from fraud, money laundering and theft.
“This comes after her second arrest on October 20, 2022 by the Hawks’ serious commercial crime investigation team on charges of fraud and theft worth R500,000.
“Van der Schyff was first arrested in 2019 by the same team for misappropriating trust funds to the value of R4.8 million and subsequently released on R20,000 bail,” Hani said.
Van der Schyff was struck off the roll of attorneys by the Western Cape High Court in 2017, following an interdict application which was lodged in 2016.
“The Hawks investigation showed that she continued facilitating offers to purchase several properties from 2019 to date, knowing fully well that she was disbarred from practising as an attorney by the Western Cape High Court. The misappropriation was done in her professional capacity as an additional duty of care and diligence in dealing with the transfer of properties and the Registrar of Deeds.”
Hani said Van der Schyff was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for two counts of money laundering and four years imprisonment for contravening the Legal Practice Act.
She was sentenced to another 10 years for nine counts of fraud and 18 years for four additional counts of fraud, suspended for five years with conditions.
IOL