WHEN VETERAN CAPE town insolvency practitioner Eileen Fey ventured to sug-gest to attorney Leonard Katz of law firm ENS that his bill of R422,871.57 to defend a matter in the Wynberg Magistrates Court seemed “extremely high” and would he please draft a bill for taxation*, Katz went ballistic.
“This request is outrageous. You have a full narrative. I am not taxing my bill,” was the furious and immediate response of South Africa’s most controversial insolvency lawyer, widely known as Lennie the Liquidator. Katz declared that Fey’s request for his bill to be taxed was “dishonest” and his firm would do no more work on the matter. “Furthermore, I will do whatever is necessary to ensure that you are removed as a trustee in this estate,” ran the attorney’s email. “You are dishonest and a disgrace to the profession.”
In his fury, Katz copied his “you are dishonest” email to eight prominent members of the insolvency world, including the Deputy Master of the Western Cape high court Irma Dick. And in a separate email to Cata Silile, the court’s Assistant Master, Katz wrote: “I am going to be lodging a formal complaint against Ms Fey. In my view, she is dishonest, does not act in the interests of creditors, and should be removed forthwith.” Katz copied this second email to the recipients of his first one, adding in an insolvency practitioner at KPMG.
While this flurry of emails took place on 5 April 2017. It is only now that they have come to light after Eileen Fey launched a belated and unreported R500,000 defamation action against Leonard Katz this March – just in time to beat the three-year prescription deadline. She claims that his statements about her were defamatory and false.
Denne historien er fra September 2020-utgaven av Noseweek.
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Denne historien er fra September 2020-utgaven av Noseweek.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
After losing his cool when his fees were questioned
Panel Beater De Luxe
Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.
A Picture Of Peace?
Beware: Appearances can be deceptive
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be
Everybody Drinks Corona
I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary
The money train
Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’
Bush school – A memoir
OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.
