JOHANNESBURG - At the end of November last year Coca-Cola Africa, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Company, was hijacked. All the legitimate directors were deregistered by a criminal syndicate on the Companies and Intellectual Property Office (CIPRO) database and replaced by one ‘Samuel Sadike'*, aged 34.
This case is significant not just for the brazen way the syndicate went after one of the world's most famous companies, but because it occurred after new security measures were implemented which CIPRO was initially confident had put a stop to the problem. In mid-December last year Politicsweb ran a brief report on the incident. However, we are now able to disclose how the syndicate was able to simply walk around these new controls.
According to new requirements introduced by CIPRO in September 2010 in order for a company to change its directors it had to provide the following: certified copies of the IDS or passports of the new and serving directors; a certified copy of an extract of the minutes with the resolution to change directors; and a written mandate from the CEO or Managing Director of the company.
These criteria have greatly increased the burden on legitimate companies. It is difficult and time consuming, for instance, to collect the IDs of all a company's directors - particularly when they may be travelling around the world (or the country) much of the time.
However, they do not seem to have placed too large an obstacle in the path of CIPRO fraudsters. In the Coca-Cola Africa case they simply forged all the required documentation.
Minutes of a meeting ‘held' on November 11 2010, and attended by ‘all' Coca-Cola Africa's directors, were submitted at which a resolution was passed which resolved that Samuel Sadike be appointed a "director/s of the company and that the appointment be registered with Cipro." It was resolved "that the resignation of Mojapelo Euniccah Maggie Sethololo, Egde William Ebot Ako, Ralebepa Ngoako Joseph, Asiko William, Maditsi Alexander Komape, Naidoo Brett as director of the company be, and is hereby accepted and be registered with Cipro."