R23.5m was laundered through account linked to Nafiz Modack, court told

In less than three years, R23.5-million was allegedly laundered through the account of Empire Investment Cars, which prosecutors have claimed was a front for criminal activity on the part of Nafiz Modack.

Almost R7-million came from The Toy Shop, a luxury car dealership in Cape Town, whose manager said the money was to pay extortionists.

This evidence was presented by Hawks investigating officer Captain Edward du Plessis during his eight-day evidence-in-chief before Judge Robert Henney in the Western Cape High Court.

Du Plessis is a member of the national task force investigating the murder of the Anti-Gang Unit’s Lieutenant Colonel Charl Kinnear in September 2020.

Yaseen Modack, brother of Nafiz Modack. (Photo: Daily Maverick)

Du Plessis’ evidence related to the money laundering charges against Modack, his brother Yaseen Modack and Modack’s alleged associates Mogamat Mukudam and Ricardo Morgan.

Du Plessis testified that between 17 July 2018 and 27 March 2021, R23.5-million was laundered into the Empire Investment Cars account.

Modack and his 14 co-accused collectively face 124 charges including murder, attempted murder, corruption, gangsterism, extortion, the illegal interception of communications, racketeering, money laundering and contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Nafiz Modack allegedly tried to bribe top cops in his own ‘undercover operation’, court hears

Toy Shop ‘extortion’ 

Prosecutor Greg Wolmarans said the State obtained a statement from The Toy Shop manager Mark Misdorp claiming that the business paid almost R7-million in extortion payments to Empire Investment Cars.

Misdorp will testify to this effect when the case resumes on 29 July after a recess, the court heard.

In February 2021, three men entered The Toy Shop and demanded to see the boss. When staff refused, more men climbed out of two taxis parked in front of the shop, entered the premises and began damaging the vehicles.

A leading South African luxury car dealership, The Toy Shop in Cape Town, being vandalised in 2021. (Screengrab: Youtube)

Du Plessis’ claims about extortion payments sparked heated debate from Modack’s defence counsel, advocate Bash Sibda.

Sibda argued that the extortion allegation should be dropped because Modack had not been charged with extortion.

Judge Robert Henny said the State did not have to charge Modack with extortion to use evidence to build its money laundering case.

Money trail into Empire account

According to Du Plessis, the following payments were made into the Empire Investment Cars account:

• R4.2-million was paid by The Toy Shop between September 2018 and November 2020. A further R485,000 was paid from September 2019 to April 2020 and a further R1.78-million in April 2020.


• Ricardo Morgan made payments amounting to R2.83-million from 7 July 2020 to 16 October 2020. Payment references included “sanitisers” and “masks”.


• Co-accused Zane Kilian paid R50,000 in April 2020, with the reference “Mr Ping”.


• Co-accused Anwar Gallie made payments amounting to R3.5-million from November 2018 to July 2019.


• RYA Trust, linked to Modack’s mother, deposited R3.36-million into the account between July 2018 and March 2021.


• Point Black Security, a security company based in Durban, paid R1.45-million into the account between October 2018 and September 2020. The owner of the company, Dariq Downes, stated he provided security at sites in Cape Town with the assistance of Yaseen Modack and all the payments went to Yaseen Modack. DM