Good news for KZN scheme victims

Additional payments could be on the cards for investors who put money into Hillcrest-based company Ingede Mineral Holdings, which was allegedly run as a Ponzi scheme.

The company, which was run by businessman Goodman Goqo, was shut down by the Reserve Bank in 2010. Goqo faces about 4 000 charges of fraud and is expected to be tried in April.

According to the charge sheet, the company operated as a bank and undertook to manage about R80 million from more than 3 000 investors. Goqo allegedly told investors that their money would be invested in the stock market, their capital was guaranteed, and promised a return of 30 percent over six months. Instead, the money was allegedly used by Goqo to buy expensive clothes, shoes and other luxuries.

Investors were finally paid in January this year, but some said they were disappointed as they had received only 30 percent of the capital they had invested.

Theo van den Heever, who was appointed as the liquidator for Ingede Mineral Holdings, confirmed that investors had received about 30 percent of their capital. He said the payments were calculated according to the amount invested, less the returns received from the scheme.

“This is where I think some of the confusion lies because people may think they are entitled to interest. But we have not looked at interest at all. Our concern was to make payments as quickly as possible.”

He added that attempts were being made to recover money from people who had received large sums of money from the scheme.

“We will investigate why these people got these large payments. If we are not satisfied with the answers then we will consider recovering the money through litigation if it is financially viable.”

He added that there was a small percentage of claims which were being investigated as it was believed they were false. He also said it was difficult to communicate with the investors.

For information about the payments, they can telephone a call centre at 012 663 1147. - The Mercury