Businessman to sue editor over Ponzi claim
Publish date: 12 February 2018
Issue Number: 761
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Defamation
Businessman Cobus Kellermann has instituted legal action against BizNews editor Alec Hogg to claim damages for defamation, according to a Moneyweb report. Kellermann, who Hogg alleges is a ‘mastermind’ behind a fraudulent enterprise, is claiming R5m for injury to ‘his name, reputation and standing’. BizNews reportedly claimed that Kellermann had defrauded investors of billions through what it called ‘the Belvedere Group’. It claimed he had been ‘fingered as a mastermind behind a massive global Ponzi scheme run out of Mauritius’. Kellermann says ‘the only way for the truth to come out is to level the playing field, which would be in a South African court’.