The Gqeberha Commercial Crime Court convicted Wendy Zimasa Xabiya (32) for numerous counts of forgery, fraud, money laundering and contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act on Thursday, 24 March 2022.
During the period between 1 January 2017 and 1 December 2018, Xabiya employed as finance administrator at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, processed fraudulent travel and subsistence claims. Thereafter funds were deposited unlawfully into fraudulent beneficiary’s accounts for her personal enrichment.
The University, on discovering the abnormality, referred the matter to Gqeberha based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team for probing which led to her arrest on 3 December 2021.
She made a short court appearance on the same day and was released on a warning.
The investigations revealed that the university was prejudiced cash to the value of more than R480 000. The conviction comes after a series of court appearances.
The matter is remanded to 20 June 2022 for sentencing.
