A Cape Town doctor has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for money laundering, selling and distributing medicine to the value of R5 million, as well as money laundering.
This follows his arrest in 2018 along with his wife. Bert Wolfgang Kirsten was found with medicine
that were allegedly ready for distribution to the US.
‘’This emanates from an incident that occurred in October
2018, where scheduled medicine were seized after search warrants were executed
as part of Hawks probe into an alleged illegal medicine distribution network
involving multiple countries. Kirsten as well as his wife were then arrested by
the Hawks’ South African Narcotics Enforcement Bureau, together with the
Wynberg Visible Policing Unit at Kenilworth post office after he had handed in
envelopes containing schedule medicines destined for the United States,’’ said
Zinzi Hani, Hawks spokesperson in the Western Cape.
Hani said the couple appeared in court on charges of
contravening the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act‚ read with the
Drug and Drug Trafficking Act. The duo has since been out on bail,
Wolfgang Kirsten was granted R80 000 bail while the wife on R20 000.
Kirsten was sentenced on Friday. However, his sentence was
suspended for five years under the conditions he does not commit the same
offence again. Furthermore, he will be under supervision for the first 3 years
of his sentence.
All counts against the wife were withdrawn.
Done By : Elona Sibunzi
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