Roger Kebble escapes jail for share manipulation

A report in The Mercury says Kebble’s sentence was the result of a plea bargain agreement with the State, in which he admitted to committing the offences five years ago, while he was chairperson of Durban Roodepoort Deep. As a result State Advocate Gerrie Roberts SC withdrew five charges of fraud and one of share manipulation. Judge Nigel Willis hailed the agreement as fair and sensible and said it had saved the state and defence valuable time and resources in a ‘complex and technical’ case that could have taken months, or even years, to finalise. When deciding not to send Kebble to jail, Willis said he had considered Kebble’s age, his remorse, his shattered reputation, his personal circumstances and the murder of his son. Kebble will pay the R5m fine in three installments. Full report in The Mercury

A case against Brett Kebble remains on the Johannesburg High Court roll for October 9. Kebble, gunned down on September 27 in Johannesburg, had been ordered to appear in the court some months earlier along with his father, Roger, and Hendrik Buitendag, of Roodepoort, says a report on The Citizen site. While a new indictment is now expected, Brett Kebble was to have appeared both in his personal capacity and for Western Areas Limited, which had also been charged. The case, which had by then been in and out of the courts for three years, alleges numerous counts of ‘fraud by silence’ – allegedly failing to disclose, where there was ‘a duty to disclose’ particulars of share trading ‘flowing from the securities regulation panel rules and Companies Act’. The original High Court indictment also claimed contraventions of the Companies Act including ‘being party’ to reckless trading in respect of Western Areas Ltd. Full report on The Citizen site

Cape Town’s Trinity Holdings, led by Quinton George, has dropped another court case involving JCI. Early in August it dropped applications to liquidate JCI and Randgold & Exploration (R&E). Details of the settlements, announced yesterday, preceded crucial general meetings today (Friday) of JCI, and its listed subsidiary, Matodzi, notes a Moneyweb report. The settlements were announced a day after the first anniversary of the slaying of Brett Kebble, who had been CE of JCI, R&E and Western Areas until the final days of August 2005. JCI had earlier instituted proceedings against Trinity for some R35m. JCI last year settled a R67m judgment won by Benoryn against JCI, where Trinity had stood as co-surety with JCI. JCI also sued Kabusha, of which George and his father are directors, for some R70m on the basis that JCI had, as surety, discharged Kabusha\'s debt as a principal debtor to Benoryn. Yesterday it was announced that all relevant parties had agreed that all outstanding matters would be settled, and that after deduction of legal expenses, JCI would receive a net payment of R26m from Kabusha. Peter Gray, the CE of JCI and R&E, says that as part of the settlement he is withdrawing all allegations against Kabusha. Full Moneyweb report