Coal tycoon accused of stashing funds in Mauritius

Coal tycoon and former cage-fighter Frederick Lutzkie has been accused of keeping millions of dollars and euros, allegedly generated through organised crime, in a Mauritian bank. According to correspondence by a whistle-blower who lodged a complaint with the Governor of the Bank of Mauritius and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime, Lutzkie controlled a vast network of companies in both SA and Mauritius through which he allegedly laundered money on behalf of the SA criminal underground. City Press reports the funds, said the whistle-blower, were kept in multiple accounts that Lutzkie held at Barclays Bank. Lutzkie is linked to more than 50 companies in SA and has houses in Ballito, Middelburg, Mpumalanga and Pretoria. He has, over the past few years, had brushes with law enforcement authorities in Zimbabwe related to the violation of the Civil Aviation Act after crashing a helicopter and failing to report the incident. Lutzkie has also been embroiled in numerous business disputes and has faced a few criminal charges in SA. The most recent case against Lutzkie is a complaint by Advocate Manogh Dayanand Maharaj to the Human Rights Commission after he allegedly referred to the lawyer as a ‘kaffir’ in 2020 when they travelled to a hunting exercise at Welgevonden Nature Reserve as guests of businessman Zunaid Moti. Maharaj was late for a chartered flight from Lanseria to Durban when Lutzkie allegedly sent the defamatory text message. Lutzkie denied all allegations contained in the whistle-blower’s correspondence through his lawyers from Gothe Attorneys who said the allegations were ‘baseless, unfounded and quite frankly, scandalous and vexatious’.