Fidentia curators spread their tentacles

Another character at the centre of the scandal, Danisa Baloyi, is laying very low following media allegations that she has lied about her credentials. And executives at the Transport Education and Training Authority are also coming under the scrutiny of a forensic probe to see if there was any collusion with Fidentia bosses.

The curators have won a court order to recover some of the R62m from the Cruickshank estate. Pretoria High Court Judge Brian Southwood indicated that he gained the impression that Cruickshank, who committed suicide last year, had colluded with Fidentia director J Arthur Brown to siphon off millions of rands in fraudulent business transactions, says a report on the IoL site. Curator Dines Gihwala said although Cruickshank\'s personal estate held nearly R7m, the curators had discovered properties, vehicles, listed shares and offshore investments that will have to be attached. Gihwala said they intend investigating other associates of Brown who allegedly took part in the Fidentia scam. Full report on IoL site

The sequestration application was brought against Cruickshank’s wife, Samantha, the executrix of the estate. Brian Pincus, senior counsel for the curators, told Southwood that Cruickshank was an unrehabilitated insolvent. But on January 11 2005 he persuaded a court that he was worthy to be rehabilitated, says Business Report. Some months later, R62.5m was transferred from Fidentia to Cornerstone Transaction Financing and Cornerstone Global Transaction Solution (CGTS), both companies controlled by Cruickshank. Pincus said Cruickshank, in collaboration with Brown and Graham Maddock, Fidentia\'s auditor, had ‘masterminded a massive fraud and misappropriation of investors\' funds in the Fidentia companies’. Pincus said what made the matter urgent was that Brown and Cruickshank regarded Fidentia and Ovation as their personal fiefdom and regarded investors\' funds as their personal assets to which they could lay claim and invest and/or spend at their own discretion, which they did. Horton Griffiths, the curator of Common Cents, a company controlled by Cruickshank, has found that about R150m was unaccounted for. When the company was acquired by him on March 1 2005, two months after his rehabilitation, it had assets under management of R400m. This needed urgent investigation, Pincus told the court. Full report on Business Report site

Questions are still being asked about leading businesswoman Baloyi. Moneyweb says it has been a month since doubts were cast over her qualifications and yet she has still not commented. Nor has she repaid an R8m loan she received from Fidentia – an interest-free loan, whose only onerous term was that it was callable at any time. Baloyi was involved in the Fidentia scandal as both a director of the group and a trustee of the Living Hands Umbrella Trust (LHUT). It is alleged by Fidentia\'s curators that Brown and accountant Graham Maddock looted more than a billion rand of widows’ and orphans’ money from LHUT. If the doubt surrounding Baloyi\'s qualifications and awards is misplaced, clearing the air would be a relatively easy process, possibly involving university and other officials. The longer Baloyi delays her response, the more likely the public is to think the worst, the reports says. Investigations revealed that Baloyi allegedly does not hold a doctorate from Columbia University as she has claimed. Various claims have been made that in 2003 Danisa received the ‘Business Woman of the Year\' award. But Moneyweb claims that Baloyi was never Businesswoman of the Year in 2003 or any other year. Full Moneyweb report

The probe of Fidentia executives is being extended to those who run the Transport Education and Training Authority (Teta). According to Business Report, an internal forensic audit is in progress to determine whether any directors or members of the executive team of Teta had a direct relationship with Fidentia. ‘There may have been collusion or a conflict of interest,’ Teta\'s CE, Piet Bothma, said this week. Bothma said the audit would also help determine whether Teta had adhered to all applicable legislation and regulations. Teta\'s board appointed a special subcommittee to deal with all matters relating to Fidentia and authorised the internal forensic investigation by KPMG. The audit stems from Teta\'s investment of more than R245m in Fidentia. A cloud of uncertainty is still hanging over this investment and it is unclear how much of it Teta will be able to recover. Full report in Business Report