Former CEO of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, Dr Ali Bacher, has rejected claims that he gave permission to a former financial manager to transfer funds that had been defrauded from the Board.

Bacher was giving evidence in a Johannesburg court in the trial of Diteko Modise, who is being charged with defrauding the cricket Board of more than $1 million.

Diteko had alleged that he had been given permission by Bacher through a fax document in March 2004. The fax stated that Bacher had given Modise permission to transfer $235,000 and $415,000 to the bank account of a so-called company within PPC Cement. The bank account was Modise’s private account. Modise was arrested in March 2004 after an investigation by the UCB’s auditors into allegations of misappropriation of funds. The investigations were undertaken after it was found that approximately $1 million had disappeared from the organisation’s funds while it was Modise’s job to handle all internal UCB audits.

Modise was, despite his position, not entitled to spend any UCB money without the necessary authorisation.

Bacher said in his evidence that the correspondence was forged. “I never sent this letter and never gave such permission,” he said. Bacher told the court he did not have the authority to approve any payments. He had not been associated in any way with the UCB or Modise after he had left the Board in 2004.