Nicki Padayachee
16 March 2003
Johannesburg — Americans David Boresi and Bobby Coffey handed over a combined 38 000 ( R300 000) to con men last year.
Boresi is set to receive his $6 000 (nearly R49 000) next week, and Coffey will be reimbursed once the wife of the man who conned him raises the cash.
The '419' scam is an advance fee fraud where victims are asked to hand over a large sum of money to facilitate the transfer to them of millions of US dollars.
But victims never see their fee again.
Boresi and Coffey, however, struck it lucky when investigators attached to South Africa's elite law enforcement arm, the Scorpions, arrested the men who had defrauded them.
During sentencing, Nigerian Herbert Tasie - convicted of defrauding Coffey of $32 000 (R250 000) - agreed to repay his victim in return for having half of his 12-year jail sentence suspended.
Nixon Chunda, a Zambian citizen convicted of defrauding Boresi of $6 000 (R50 000), agreed to similar terms.
Both men - who were convicted of racketeering - are serving time in Pretoria Central Prison.
The National Director of Public Prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, confirmed the money would be handed over, but said that a "mechanism" would need to be created whereby South Africa could recoup the money spent on investigating and trying the con men.
"Personally, I would like the money to go to the Asset Forfeiture Unit, but where there are victims and it is possible to refund them, we should do it," he said. "But we need to create a mechanism whereby we can deduct the state's costs."
Chunda's lawyer, Dirk Human, said both con men had gone to great lengths to reimburse their victims.
"Tasie's wife phones me constantly. She sold the family home and car and is struggling to raise the money in Nigeria," he said.
Human said Chunda sold his house in Zambia and his two co-accused - who were deported - sold property in Nigeria to raise the cash for their friend.
But Human said it was unfair that South African taxpayers picked up the bill for their imprisonment, even though they didn't see a cent.
"I say that if they [the victims] are dumb enough to fall for something like this, then they should take the consequences. These are affluent business people - they're not poor," he said.
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