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A 28-year-old former employee at First National Bank (FNB) was arrested for allegedly stealing over R36 million belonging to a deceased client.
Thabiso Matenda from Limpopo was arrested by the Hawks Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit on Friday for allegedly stealing R36,989,051.67.
It is alleged that on 25 April 2022, Matenda, who was a consultant at FNB at the Makhado Branch, opened a profile of a client who died the day before in a car accident without any authorisation.
Matenda then, with an accomplice, opened a new bank account and linked it to the deceased person’s account.
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After opening the account, they started spending all the money from the dead person’s account.
They were caught when FNB discovered the illegal activities on the bank account and opened a case of theft with the Hawks.
When the bank manager approached Mutenda about the matter, he reportedly resigned with immediate effect.
The Hawks investigations revealed that some of the stolen money was used to buy expensive cars and some was donated to a church.
Mutenda made his first appearance at the Makhado Magistrate’s Court on Monday and the case was postponed to 17 June for formal bail application.
The investigation is still ongoing and more arrests are imminent.
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