Fidentia boss in jail
Publish date: 07 March 2007
Issue Number: 1780
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: Tenders
Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown, the man at the centre of what could be SAs biggest corporate investment scandal, is behind bars after appearing in the Cape Town Magistrates Court yesterday with group accountant Graham Maddock.
They appeared on a string of charges, including fraud of R200.3m, says a Mail & Guardian Online report. They will be detained at Goodwood prison until a bail hearing on March 15. The men face charges of fraud, theft and contraventions of the Companies Act, the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, the Reserve Bank Act and exchange-control regulations, as well as of income tax laws. Scorpions prosecutor Bruce Morrison, the man who recently secured a conviction in the LeisureNet criminal trial, told the court that these charges related to the Transport, Education and Training Authority (Teta), which was only one leg of the Scorpions\' three-week-old investigation. The other legs related to the Living Hands Trust, responsible for funds meant for miners\' widows and orphans, and to allegations of corruption arising from the first two probes. About 351 bank accounts would have to be examined in the process, he said. Full report on the Mail & Guardian Online site
