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More than 10 residents of Ladybrand invested a cumulative amount of R905 000 through a company called MTS General Trading. Victims were promised 30 % monthly interest on their investment.

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Sizwe sama Yende

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Free State police have cracked another get-rich-quick scheme in the province following arrest of a mother and son team that had fleeced R905 000 from residents.

The arrest of Pontsho Faith Lepoqo (60) and Sebotsa Washington Lepoqo (34) last week is one of many investment scams that have been sprouting all over the province.

Free State police have not been able to give an reasons for the increasing number of cases.

Provincial Hawks spokesperson Lt Colonel Zweli Mohobeleli reported that mother and son  have appeared for the first time in the Ladybrand Magistrates Court on allegations of fraud, money laundering, contravention of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 37 of 2002, and contravention of the Banks Act 94 of 1990.

They will appear again on January 29. Mohobeleli said they were arrested on a warrant by Bethlehem Serious Commercial Crime Investigation detectives.

“It is alleged that over 10 residents of Ladybrand invested a cumulative amount of R905 000 through a company called MTS General Trading run by the pair. Victims were promised 30 % monthly interest. They opened cases when dividends were not forthcoming,” he said.

Other cases were reported last year, and some of the scammers were sentenced.

On June 4 2024, the Ladybrand Magistrates' Court sentenced David Albert Titus (40) to an effective 11 years imprisonment for fraud and money laundering. Titus was also declared unfit to possess a firearm. 

Titus lured his victims to invest money in his scam with a promise that they would earn a 20% monthly interest. The victims invested a cumulative R900 000.

One victim lost R100 000 and alerted police when he did not get his dividends.

 On May 17, the Bethlehem Commercial Crimes Court convicted and sentenced Lebogang Maboea (28) for fraud.  Maboea defrauded people through his investment scheme called Black Child Billionaire between 2018 and 2019.

He inveigled community members in the eastern Free State to invest money into the scheme with the promise that they would get 50% interest within 30 days.

None of the investors received a cent.

Maboea was sentenced to three years direct imprisonment for seven counts of fraud, two years imprisonment which is suspended for five years for seven counts of contravention of the Banks Act, and two years imprisonment which is wholly suspended for five years for 13 counts of contravention of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act. The sentences will run concurrently.

In April, the Ladybrand Magistrate’s Court issued an order to preserve  flamboyant forex trader Moeketsi Ntshasa’s R2.9 million house.

Ntshasa (28) allegedly scammed 146 individuals.

Ntshasa ran a forex company, Integrated Investment Inn, through which investors lost about R21 million. When he felt he had collected enough, he abandoned his investors in 2021 and went to live in Johannesburg where police found him in 2022.

Police said that Integrated Investment Inn was a registered company with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) but was not registered as a financial services provider.

Ntshasa and his partner, Phetogo Molosi (26), are attending trial in the Ladybrand Magistrate’s Court.

Ntshasa’s Facebook page showed that he lived on the lap of luxury. The couple got engaged in the pristine beaches of Maldivez Islands, south Asia, in 2021.