This conviction for company hijacking, the first of its kind, involved a member of a syndicate that fraudulently submitted CM29 forms to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission together with minutes and resolutions for the amendment of directorships of Coca-Cola Africa Limited, Remag Limited, NtiroTechnologies and MJS Trading Limited, which are international companies with registered offices in South Africa.
Company hijacking, also known as corporate identity theft, involves the acquisition of control of a company through the falsification of company information and records, as well as through making false representations. I The result of this is that a search for a particular company or product would result in an individual being directed to the hijacker’s website, or alternatively the legitimate company’s details may not appear on the search results or may appear further down the search results.
Once the fraudsters sell their shares and the fraudsters stop hyping the shares, the share price inevitably falls, and innocent investors end up losing money. It should also be noted that fraudsters target international companies that have subsidiaries in South Africa but with a board of directors that are not local to the country. Hence, it is advisable, as a preventative measure, to appoint a local representative as a director.
This is why it is crucial for businesses to perform meaningful background checks on prospective workers before hiring them. Since more than half of these types of fraud are discovered as a result of employee whistleblower tips, it is crucial that businesses foster an environment that encourages employees to report fraud within the company.
MMCforDED yet another thing to protect micro business from