They face charges of fraud, contravention of section 54 of the International Trade Administration Act and contravention of regulation 22 of the Exchange Control Act. The charges arise from a joint investigation by the SA Revenue Service and the Investigating Directorate into the failed Free State Estina project.
“The customs declaration was scrutinised, whereupon the declared value of more than R37.7m for a ‘new’ pasteurisation plant was suspected to be excessively high,” the NPA said. Explaining to the court, Swart said “UTI is registered with Sars and is a clearing agent which conducted business on behalf of its client, Estina”.
Swart explained that the port of loading was in India, while the port of discharge was Durban. He said the total shipment contained a total of 482 packages. Vasram was the sole director of Estina during the commission of the alleged offences. The pair were arrested at the end of December 2021 and granted bail of R10,000 each.