Conflicts of interest issues raised in Investec, JCI loan case

At stake, according to a Moneyweb report, is a profit sharing fee of around R500m, which Monty Koppel, representing Letšeng Diamonds, says JCI does not owe Investec. On Monday, Michael Kuper SC characterised the relationship between Investec and JCI as the ‘Siamese twins’ case, with the two joined at the head, shoulders, stomach, and ‘nether regions’. Yesterday, he at one stage asked whether David Nurek, an Investec representative, would speak to David Nurek of JCI. Nurek has been chairman of both JCI and associated company Randgold & Exploration (R&E) since shortly after the late Brett Kebble was ousted from the companies in August 2005. Kuper complained of a hopelessly conflicted JCI board, which apart from Nurek, had also housed two other Investec representatives, Donn Jowell and Peter Thomas, since Kebble\'s ousting. Kuper argued that the so-called Investec Loan Agreement (ILA), which dates to late August 2005, had not been commercially motivated. The loan, of around R460m, is broadly in the ballpark of the R500m which went ‘missing’ from JCI under Kebble\'s watch. The report says that Kuper appeared to find it curious that the Investec loan was close to the R500m ‘missing’ figure, announced by new JCI (and R&E) CE Peter Gray on April 7 2006. Kuper said the ILA was the ‘last desperate act of thieves to cover their defalcations, to get new cash to cover the cash that had been stolen’. Full Moneyweb report