Five CIPRO employees suspended - Keith Sendwe
JOHANNESBURG (Sapa) - Five employees of the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro) have been suspended for alleged fraudulent activities, the company said on Friday.
The fraudsters allegedly cloned businesses on Cipro's database to defraud them, Cipro chief executive Keith Sendwe told media in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
"The cloning scam was only recently uncovered (see here) and a special multi-disciplinary task team has since been appointed by the management of Cipro in order to conduct a full investigation into the extent of the problem.
"Our aim is to bring those responsible for crime to book and to put a watertight action plan in place to prevent any future reoccurrence of the heinous crime," said Sendwe.
He said a number of companies registered with Cipro suffered financial losses through the cloning scam but declined to reveal the amount involved.
A forensic audit was underway to establish how much money companies had lost through the scam.
Cipro's chief information officer Michael Twum-Darko said investigations were undertaken earlier this year following the discovery of 143 suspected fraudulent activities on Cipro's system in December last year.
"One hundred and forty three people were found to have performed irregular activities in our system and following investigations, the five employees were found to have been involved in fraudulent activities," said Twum-Darko.
The five alleged fraudsters have been reported to police and investigations are underway.
Keith Sendwe CEO Cipro
Sendwe said a number of systems had been put in place to safeguard companies registered with Cipro from fraudulent activities.
"Apart from bringing these fraudsters to book, the management of Cipro is doing everything within its power to further improve and strengthen systems and processes in order to combat fraudulent activities," he said.
This included a customer verification system.
"We recently launched the customer verification system whereby customers need to be verified and authenticated by a registered commissioner of oaths before they will be allowed to effect electronic changes on their company profile.
"This intervention will go a long way in assisting us in rooting out fraudulent activities," he said.
Meanwhile, Cipro will in the next month be de-registering 65,000 companies due to their failure to pay the taxman.
Cipro registers businesses and intellectual property rights and maintains related registers.
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Comments
guys away once the investigation is complete? Or will they get a sweetheart deal from popcru, sorry Correctional (?) Services, like Yengeni or Shaik?
by semaarnet on August 21 2009, 17:28
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I wonder who are they? I wonder if the ANB people are not amongst those.
by Nipo on August 24 2009, 03:40
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What do you expect this days from the previously well run entities that are now "transformed"?
"Transformed" into what?
Telkom, Eskom, Home Affairs, Local Authorities, etc, etc...
The beloved country is no more than a crying shame.
by Injala Apera on August 24 2009, 08:10
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There has been a lot of reporting on fraud and corruption by some of the leaders of this country, what then do we expect? Its still early, we are heading for the drain. Good luck South Africa!!
by Zmish on August 24 2009, 10:02
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The CEO has done well to get to the bottom of this issue. Your misplaced judgement sounds more like a frustrtahted man who wish there was no Black man in SA. Why don't look elsewhere for permanent stay.
by Pops on August 24 2009, 17:10
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Transformed to black ANC grass roots level = we are all phuked ha ha ha ha ha .
by Dilligaf on September 01 2009, 02:28
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The african way ha ha ha ha ha ha ha .its africa , the african way of doing things ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha .
by ChUcKEY on September 01 2009, 02:33
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This corruption at CIPRO is hugely disturbing. How can one safely register a patent or trademark? How can one be sure that officials will not run away with your idea and take it to their cloned/assumed companies?
Really now, this is bloody . .more
by Owen Simons on September 17 2009, 13:52
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