Shares in Advtech, the owner of private schools such as Crawford, fell 7.4% on Friday after the company said it had uncovered fraud that had taken place in its schools division since 2015. CEO Roy Douglas said a financial manager who had been with the group since 2014 had allegedly inflated revenue and understated costs in the unit through a number of transactions. The employee allegedly embezzled the money with the help of an external provider. The misstatements and cash loss amount to about R48-million, resulting in a R35.5-million after-tax impact on the financial statements from 2015 to 2017. This will be accounted for in the 2017 annual financial statements, Advtech said. Douglas said the fraud was discovered during the restructuring of the finance and administrative functions in the schools division. A new person who had been appointed to the business unit as part of restructuring had spotted transactions that were relatively small, but found the full extent of the fraud. Advt...
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