SME Bank liquidators victorious in Jhb court

CATHERINE SASMAN

The provisional liquidators in the continuing SME Bank saga celebrated a significant victory in the hunt for the beleaguered bank’s looted millions on Thursday when the Gauteng Divisional High Court in Johannesburg froze the bank accounts of Moody Blue Trade & Investments 14 (Pty) Ltd and AMFS Solutions (Pty) Ltd.

The court ruled that nobody may withdraw N$43.8 million from the FNB banking accounts of Moody Blue and AMFS Solutions.

The liquidators, David Bruni and Ian McLaren, applied to the court to have the bank accounts frozen pending the final determination of legal proceedings to be instituted to reclaim money from the companies.

The amounts in question reflect proven payments made by the SME Bank. These were calculated from records obtained from the finance department of the looted bank.

Payments amounting to N$79.8 million were unlawfully made by the SME Bank to various entities - including Moody Blue, AMFS Solutions and Asset Movement & Financial Services CC – between 10 April 2015 and 11 August 2016.

Bruni said in his application that the transfers to Moody Blue and AMFS by the SME Bank were “incorrectly authorised” by the SME Bank and that the bank did not receive any value in exchange for the payments.

Moreover, no evidence was found that the transfers to Moody Blue and AMFS were legitimate.

BACKGROUND

In their founding affidavit to the Gauteng High Court the liquidators said an initial investment of N$196 million was made by the SME Bank with Mamepe Capital, a black economic empowerment financial services company headed by Mauwane Kotane.

Of this amount, N$150 million was divested at Mamepe and invested with VBS Mutual Bank, which has in the meantime been placed under curatorship and which has reportedly fallen prey to a massive fraudulent scheme, which resulted in a loss of more than N$1.5 billion.

According to bank statements three amounts – N$10 million, N$150 million and N$25 million – were transferred from Mamepe to VBS Mutual Bank. The total investment of N$185 million exceeded the approval limit of the SME Bank’s former CEO, Zimbabwean national Tawanda Mumvuma, which required SME Bank’s board approval.

VBS Bank reportedly repaid a mere N$459 000 to the SME Bank in April 2017, while the balance of N$154.7 million was “impaired” because no evidence of such a balance exists, the liquidators said.

Kotane claimed that Mamepe had invested N$188.2 million on behalf of the SME Bank, stating that the maturity dates of these investments were in June, August and September 2017.

The liquidators maintained that Kotane’s claims were false and that the SME Bank’s money was in fact transferred to Moody Blue and Asset Movement & Financial Services CC, the third respondent in the matter before the Gauteng High Court.

Bank statements from FNB showed that AMFS and Asset Movement & Financial Services for all intents and purposes jointly controlled funds that were unlawfully and without cause paid by the SME Bank.

The liquidators said the “controlling minds” of Asset Movement & Financial Services were Benoni-based Kalandra Viljoen (a model who has in the meantime moved to the USA), Carlo Stickling and Andries Greyvenstein.

The liquidators said in their application if Moody Blue and AMFS were not interdicted, the transfer of money into unknown bank accounts could not be ruled out because such transfers could take place in a matter of seconds and cannot be reversed.