The Bloemfontein Magistrates’ Court has slapped Facebook conman Radowaan Ricardo (29) from Strand in the Western Cape, with a suspended prison sentence. He was sentenced on Tuesday, 27 May, after the court found him guilty of fraud and money laundering.
Ricardo’s seven-year sentence, wholly suspended for five years, pertains the defrauding of a Bloemfontein-based woman out of R85 800. His sentencing is the culmination of the Bloemfontein Hawks’ Serious Corruption Investigation team’s probing into the crime committed during December 2022. The investigators traced and arrested Ricardo on Wednesday, 21 May.
WO Fikiswa Matoti, provincial spokesperson for the Hawks, said the sentence suspension has a strict condition: Ricardo must not be convicted of a similar offence during the period.
Matoti said the conman contacted the victim via e-mail and introduced himself as a representative of the American government. He then tried convincing the victim that she could become a beneficiary of a Covid-19 pandemic-related grant. This was on the condition that she deposit money into a bank account he provided.
Matoti said Ricardo tricked the victim by sending a list of other individuals, who purportedly qualify for the same grant. Appearing on the list was the name of a friend of the victim, she said. The victim then contacted her friend through a Facebook account. The friend confirmed a receipt of the grant, finally convincing the victim to deposit the money.
However, Matoti said it was later discovered that the victim had been communicating with Ricardo all along, who had hacked her friend’s Facebook account.
