SA doubles down on double standards
Noseweek|March 2020
The state was the biggest beneficiary from the collapse of the Tannenbaum Ponzi scheme
Justin Brown
SA doubles down on double standards

IRONICALLY, THE SOUTH AFRICAN government ended up being the biggest beneficiary from the col-lapse of Barry Tannenbaum’s multi-billion-rand Ponzi fraud rather than the creditors.

Readers will recall how hundreds of wealthy South Africans were tempted with too-good-to-be-true quick profits to invest large sums – some individuals invested tens of millions of rand – supposedly to be used to fund the importation of the raw materials used to manufacture drugs for the treatment of HIV/Aids.

The documentation was faked and simply served as a cover for a cash pyramid or Ponzi scheme – essentially, an illegal form of gambling. Money invested by later players is used to pay profits to earlier players. Those who enter early stand to make huge profits, the bulk of players who buy in later will probably lose all they invest when the collapses – which it inevitaby must when the scheme can no longer recruit larger and larger numbers of new investors.

Making matters worse for the numerous latecomers to the scheme – which was sold to them as a legitimate, though somewhat miraculous, investment – when it collapsed in 2009, SARS and the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU), between them grabbed over R91 million found in the operators’ bank accounts.

A high court judge placed Tannenbaum’s local estate into provisional liquidation in June 2009, and the order was made final in August of that year. In July 2009, the AFU provisionally froze three accounts held by Darryl Leigh, one of Tannenbaum’s main accomplices.

NPA Gauteng spokesperson Phindile Mjonondwane said that the AFU had subsequently obtained four court orders against Leigh and another Tannenbaum accomplice, Dean Rees, which had garnered a total of R58.4 million.

Denne historien er fra March 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.

Denne historien er fra March 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.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA NOSEWEEKSe alt
Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
Noseweek

Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit

After losing his cool when his fees were questioned

time-read
10+ mins  |
September 2020
Panel Beater De Luxe
Noseweek

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.

time-read
8 mins  |
September 2020
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Noseweek

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”.

time-read
10+ mins  |
September 2020
A Picture Of Peace?
Noseweek

A Picture Of Peace?

Beware: Appearances can be deceptive

time-read
6 mins  |
September 2020
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Noseweek

Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse

Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be

time-read
4 mins  |
September 2020
Everybody Drinks Corona
Noseweek

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.

time-read
3 mins  |
May 2020
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
Noseweek

Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic

From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary

time-read
4 mins  |
May 2020
The money train
Noseweek

The money train

Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices

time-read
10+ mins  |
May 2020
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Noseweek

‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'

Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’

time-read
8 mins  |
May 2020
Bush school – A memoir
Noseweek

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.

time-read
10+ mins  |
May 2020