Curators in hunt for Ponzi billions
Curators for Herman Pretorius' investment scheme are struggling to track the billions he solicited from investors, notes a Moneyweb report which says less than R300m of an estimated R2.2bn has been traced.
The report notes that on 26 July Pretorius shot his former business partner Julian Williams before turning the gun on himself. Evidence emerged after his death that confirmed suspicions that Pretorius had been running a massive Ponzi scheme called the Relative Value Arbitrage Fund (RVAF), according to the report. It says RVAF curators estimate that the scheme received R2.2bn from about 3 000 investors. At the time of Pretorius' death, the RVAF owed an estimated R3.1bn to investors. The difference between the amount received and owing is most likely explained by the fund's performance, which is believed to be fictitious, according to the report. Full Moneyweb report