JOHANNESBURG – Police have confirmed that it was 54-year-old Veselin "Vescko" Laganin who was shot and killed at his Bedfordview home in the early hours of Saturday morning.

According to police spokesperson, Brigadier Neville Malila, the shooting took place during an alleged housebreaking robbery at Laganin's complex.

Two men had entered the residence, and shots were fired by the assailants. Malila confirmed that jewelry and cellphones had been stolen.

He also reported the police had recovered firearms outside the property.

THE POLICE in Gauteng said yesterday they had intensified the investigation into the killing of Bassam Issa, who was gunned down in Bedfordview on Saturday.

Spokesman Brigadier Neville Malila said police had received information from members of the public, including possible witnesses.

Issa had stopped at a traffic light in his car, an Audi Q7, when a white Ford Ranger approached and its occupants shot at him with AK-47 and R5 rifles, said Malila. More than 30 spent rounds were found on the scene.

"Various items, including a .38 revolver, 9mm rounds and a silencer, were found in the victim's vehicle as well as four cellphones," said Malila.

"The motive for the killings is unknown at this stage and a case of murder is being investigated by a provincial multidisciplinary team."

Johannesburg - The self-confessed triggerman in Brett Kebble's murder, notorious underworld figure Mikey Schultz, has been named in the Dave Sheer Guns scandal.

Earlier this year, The Star revealed that the arms trader, the biggest in South Africa and Africa, was being investigated by numerous state departments amid allegations of police bribery.

Johannesburg - A red Ferrari landed a businessman in jail and led to charges being levelled against a Joburg car restorer and Brett Kebble’s killer, Mikey Schultz.

The Ferrari F430 Spider, worth more than R3 million, belonged to Joburg petrol station owner Alimed Farouk Hajat.

Hajat fell behind on the payments for the luxury vehicle, and BMW Financial Services won a Pretoria High Court case last month to have the car returned to them.

But Hajat, in an affidavit, said he could not return the Ferrari because he had given it to a friend, car restorer Raymond “Razor” Barras, who in turn had given it to Schultz. Hajat said Schultz refused to return the car and had allegedly demanded money to give the Ferrari back.

Pretoria - He was known as Pretoria’s celebrity lawyer who, just a few years ago, was so wealthy he drove a Ferrari, and named Joost van der Westhuizen, James Dalton and Steve Hofmeyr among his clients.

Now Peet Viljoen is on trial for fraud, has lost his licence to practise as an attorney and has been sequestrated. His alleged desperate attempts to have charges against him dropped have led to new charges being laid against him for allegedly harassing senior police officers, private investigators, journalists and politicians.

Cases of harassment and crimen injuria have been opened against Viljoen by Chad Thomas, a forensic investigator from IRS Investigations, for alleging that he and numerous police officers in the Gauteng Hawks are corrupt.

His allegations have included attacks on the provincial head of the Hawks, Major-General Shadrack Sibiya.

Johannesburg - A private investigator has come forward to say his company was also aware of investigations into Dave Sheer Guns, which have been continuing for a number of years.

Chad Thomas, an independent organised crime investigator from IRS Forensic Investigations, said he had been aware of enquiries into employees of Dave Sheer Guns conducted by senior investigators.

He said they were from several elite units, including Crimes Against the State, the Anti-Corruption Unit, the military police, the national conventional arms control committee and defence intelligence.

The Star has exposed an investigation into the Joburg gun shop conducted by the Hawks and forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan.

’n Sakeman van Rustenburg wat R45 miljoen verloor het weens ’n beweerde slenter, verkoop nou hout in townships om te oorleef.

Johan Oosthuizen moes sy seun, Rohan, uit die Noordwes-Universiteit in Potchefstroom haal waar hy gestudeer het om te help met die houtverkopery, het dié pa van drie vertel.

JOBURG - A South African financial crimes investigation crew based in Orange Grove, IRS, will be in action on an international TV reality show.

The 13-episode show, named Corruption Busters, will be aired on National Geographic and Discovery channels.

The company is led by Gold Medal for Bravery recipient Chad Thomas. He said they have completed corruption investigations throughout Africa. “We also sent an investigative team to Benin to investigate the attempted assassination of the president there,” said Thomas.

The reality show is already being recorded. Thomas, the chief forensic investigator, said they were initially reluctant to star in the show, but after they saw the international interest in their craft, they signed up.

US body walks away with chemicals allegedly used in assassination bid.

Merrick Meek, the head of the Bryanston branch of Rawson Properties, has become embroiled in a controversy involving the illegal sale of state land and is being probed by a high-level organised crime task team, led by the Hawks.

It's part of an investigation into at least 11 cases involving dealings with state- owned land worth about R1 billion.

Meek became an accused party in the investigations after Dimension Data, a Joburg-based global ICT company, laid a criminal complaint in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca) against Meek at the Sandton police station on Friday, September 14.

The Hawks, three members of the Gauteng organised crime office as well as private investigator Chad Thomas from IRS Forensic Investigations, are involved in the investigation.

Bank customers have been warned by the SA Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) to look out for scams involving payment by cheque. Cheque fraud is on the rise and businesses need to watch out, the centre says.

Perpetrators are targeting businesses by approaching them with urgent orders for goods and a promise of payment to be made into the business’s bank account.

The promise is often supported by a proof of a cash deposit or electronic payment, but the payment is made with a fraudulent cheque.

Chad Thomas, IRS Forensic Services chief investigating officer, said this was the most common type of fraud.

Assets worth R4 million will be forfeited to the state on Thursday by a man accused of fraud in Christiana, in the North West, police said.

An order to attach the assets of Pieter Willem Van Heerden was issued by the High Court in Pretoria on July 25, said Colonel Emelda Setlhako.

Susan Cilliers

Putfontein – Lede van die Batloung-stam wie se grondeis in 2000 geslaag het, het sedertdien glo nog nie ’n sent gesien van geld wat hulle van die regering sou kry nie.

‘n Stuk grond in Ferryvale Nigel, is skerp onder die vergrootglas nadat ‘n private speurmaatskappy van Johannesburg die aangeleentheid ondersoek het.

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Police and private investigators are looking for a man suspected of two counts of housebreaking.

"We believe Lenny Govender may be able to help us in this regard," said Chad Thomas of IRS Forensic Investigations. "The suspect was a police reservist and served in the Hillbrow area in the early '90s. He knows police protocol and he knows the Hillbrow/Yeoville area very well."

Investigators believe the suspect moves around Bedfordview, Kensington, Yeoville, Berea, Hillbrow and Orange Grove  and is brazen in his criminal activity.

Popular nightclub The Voodoo Lounge might offer more voodoo than residents of northern Johannesburg suburb Linksfield can stomach.

The club has been built on the edge of council land where Johannesburg buried victims of highly contagious diseases during the first half of the 1900s.

Residents, who already resent the noise from the club, now fear that recent digging and further development might unearth the graves of people and animals that died of ills such as black plague, smallpox, syphilis and anthrax.

According to the City of Johannesburg website, about 7000 people are buried in the historic cemetery, originally bought by the Transvaal Republican Government in 1895.

Metal markers to indicate graves have been stolen, fuelling fears that development might expose corpses and spark a health crisis.

A Johannesburg mall that offers "a food, fitness and shopping experience" has delivered somewhat less - one of its restaurants was flooded with sewage just hours before its official opening.

Now, four years later, only five of The Core shopping centre's 25 shops in Sunninghill remain occupied, with some tenants claiming that they were duped into moving into the mall before a certificate of occupancy had been issued.

Alfie Rebelo, who took out a loan against his home and threw his life's savings into opening a restaurant in the mall, said he had been ruined. He signed a lease with RFC Development for a shop in 2006 after he was told that the development would include a gym, a string of restaurants, and shops that would service an office block above the mall. He was told that about 6000 people passed through the mall each day.

"That never transpired."

Parys - The day before a lawyer from Johannesburg presumably drowned on a game farm at Parys, he reportedly called in the services of a private detective.

Greg Wynne, 43, had a strong suspicion that someone wanted to kill him, Chad Thomas, chief executive of Integrated Risk Solutions, told Volksblad on Sunday.

Thomas confirmed that Wynne had employed at least one security guard after he started fearing his life was in danger.

A Soweto man has complained to the police about PTH Construction Group and its directors, accusing them of using him as a front which enabled them to benefit from BEE contracts worth at least R100-million.

Calvin Sithole, 47, was left jobless 18 months ago after the company - of which he was a director and shareholder in name only - went into voluntary liquidation. Profits which the company made and which were due to him, also vanished.

Sithole, who began as a labourer in 1990, worked his way up to the position of administration manager in 2002. He was responsible for dealing with sub-contractors on various projects for which he was paid R15000 a month.

Three years later, the married father of three was told by one of the company’s directors that they “wanted to reward my loyalty and make me their BEE partner”.

“It was a great moment. I felt like I had achieved something in my life. My wife, Basani was so happy. But I was just used.”

Sithole, who laid charges of fraud at the Norwood police station yesterday, said he received director’s fees of R5000 twice, but that was all. He was excluded from the company decisions.

Sithole’s case came to light after an investigation into 32 companies exposed suspected fraud by two of PTH’s directors, whose names are known to The Times, as well as Jan van der Merwe, its non-executive director and legal advisor.

Van der Merwe yesterday insisted that he “never participated in the day to day business of the company.”

Private investigations firm, IRS Forensic Investigations, recently uncovered suspicious activities involving the same directors in a number of other company liquidations. IRS head Chad Thomas was hired by a number of creditors owed at least R20-million.

Thomas said he found that the directors had transferred assets belonging to the company into trusts before liquidating it.

On the strength of their allegedly bogus BEE credentials, PTH were awarded two major contracts in 2006 and 2007 — a Pretoria office park and a Absa home loans call centre — worth a combined R100-million.

Said Sithole: “I knew nothing about the BEE contracts they got. I was presented as a black shareholder and director but I had no control over the finances and I was excluded from decision making processes.”

But in 2008, Sithole was told that the company was closing and that he “should claim his salary from the liquidator.”

“They just used me. I was window dressing and now I am unemployed and struggling to put my kids through school.”

After PTH was liquidated, Zycon Construction was formed with the some of the same directors and much of PTH’s equipment. Last February, Zycon was also liquidated.

A 417 enquiry into the affairs of PTH and Zycon began yesterday. However, it is being managed by a law firm linked to Van der Merwe who denied any conflict of interest.

He said he was merely helping the Master of the Johannesburg High Court.