Johannesburg - A 49-year-old Ghanaian and a 38-year-old South African are expected to appear in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Friday for their alleged involvement in a multimillion rand extortion scheme targeting the holding company for some of South Africa's largest insurance brands.
The two, whose identities are known to News24, were arrested between last week and on Wednesday for allegedly trying to extort $1m from Telesure Investment Holdings in exchange for returning stolen personal information about some of its employees.
The operation against the two was led by the Hawks's electronic crime unit (ECU). Police seized a false passport in the Ghanaian’s possession.
Telesure owns and operates insurance brands including Auto & General, Budget, DialDirect and First for Women.
The company and the Hawks said in a joint statement: "Despite having robust, state-of-the-art information security systems in place, a rogue third party contractor fraudulently gained unauthorised access to Telesure Investment Holdings’ payroll system while working on site, and stole personal information relating to some of its employees."
An investigation by the ECU, Telesure, and PwC Forensics led to the arrests.
The operation was conducted over two weeks after the perpetrators allegedly tried to extort the vast sum of money "in exchange for returning the unlawfully obtained information".
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