Czech Businessman Named in South African Insurance Fraud Case

March 18 - A Czech businessman has been identified as the second person involved in an insurance fraud case made against Liberty Life insurance.

Radovan Krejcir, who is claiming asylum in South Africa, approached a Slovakian doctor working in South Africa, Dr. Marian Tupy, asking him to create a false medical file for him, using another patient's details, claiming that he had cancer.

Krejcir then submitted "his" medical documents to Liberty Life through which he had a life insurance policy and was paid out R4.5 million in July last year.

He claimed that doctors had found secondary stage cancerous cells in a bladder biopsy that he had submitted.

Discovery Healthcare also suffered a quarter of a million rand in losses as a result of the fraud.

Dr. Tupy pleaded guilty in the Alexandra Magistrate's Court and was sentenced to seven years in jail, suspended for five years.

His prison sentence was relatively short after he reached a plea deal with the authorities and named Krejcir as his "patient".

"The accused has agreed to provide the state with full disclosure of the fraud and testify," said the State Prosecutor, Advocate Riegal du Toit.

Tupy said that after finding out that Krejcir was "first or second in command of a mafia-type organisation", he was scared for his life and therefore participated with the Czech.

Krejcir arrived in South Africa in 2007 and applied for political asylum, saying that he fears for his life if he returns to his home country.

Tupy claimed that Krejcir wanted to use the cancer diagnosis to receive an official pardon from the Czech president.