<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This interview was originally aired on\u00a0RSG Geldsake\u00a0in Afrikaans. The transcript below has been\u00a0translated into English.<\/p>\n<p>Read all our Highveld Syndication content\u00a0here.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>RYK VAN NIEKERK:<\/strong> The Highveld Syndication schemes were one of South Africa\u2019s biggest property syndication schemes, and in in the late 2000s some 18\u00a0000 investors invested about R4.6\u00a0billion in these schemes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The schemes however experienced financial problems and were put into business rescue in 2011.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2014 the courts approved a rescue plan to transfer the large number of properties that investors had paid for to a company named Orthotouch.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The plan was for Orthotouch to manage the properties and then repay the investors with the proceeds. But that did not happen.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The late Nic Georgiou was in control of Orthotouch and endorsed this.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Until today what happed to the R4.6\u00a0billion is uncertain and various legal actions are under way to get the money back for investors and determine whether any fraud or theft of money was involved.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nic Georgiou passed away in 2021. His estate was finally sequestrated yesterday [Monday, 23 February], and this may to furnish answers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Advocate Louis Bolt is on the line. He lodged the application for sequestration on behalf of one of his clients.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Louis, welcome to the programme. What does the sequestration of Nic Georgiou\u2019s estate mean?<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>LOUIS BOLT:<\/strong> Good afternoon, Ryk.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among other things, the sequestration order involves four people being appointed to take control of the estate so that it can be cashed out to the benefit of the creditors.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Section 65 of the Insolvency Act empowers the trustees to conduct an interrogation and then for the insolvency and other witnesses to investigate the business\u2019s insolvency and other financial positions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is what we are now attempting to do \u2013 to an interrogate everyone who was involved in Georgiou\u2019s business affairs, so as to investigate his financial and business interests, look for the assets and then turn those into cash in favour of the creditors.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>RYK VAN NIEKERK:<\/strong> Do we know what the assets in the estate are?<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>LOUIS BOLT:<\/strong> After we received the verdict against Georgiou, the sheriff of course went to seize the assets that were there and Georgiou indicated that he had a member\u2019s interest in a close corporation [CC] at around R12\u00a0million. That is in a retirement centre somewhere in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We also did further investigations, Deeds Office searches, et cetera, and discovered that Georgiou held various stakes in a number of companies and cryptocurrencies that he of course had neglected to disclose to the sheriff.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We also found that he was a director of a company that had 90 units in a holiday resort near Bela Vista, as well as a member\u2019s interest in a 65-unit retirement centre.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We further found court rulings in which one of Georgiou\u2019s sons attempted to buy shares belonging to Georgiou and transfer them to another company to prevent those shares falling into Georgiou\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We also found another court ruling in which it was said that Georgiou had borrowed from a third party and pledged security of a R40 million financial stake he had in another company.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So a huge amount of investigative work was done with regard to Georgiou\u2019s interests in these companies.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>RYK VAN NIEKERK:<\/strong> Louis, you\u2019ve mentioned a great number of assets, but those do nor amount to the billions of rand being sought. Do you suspect that there may be more hidden money or money removed from the estate?<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>LOUIS BOLT:<\/strong> Ryk, if one accepts that Georgiou in his private capacity took out a R303\u00a0million loan in 2007\/8 for the Picvest company in his personal capacity, buying Johan Botha\u2019s shares, that is the origin of Georgiou\u2019s involvement in the Highveld Syndication companies.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A certain Rikus Myburgh was appointed a director of Picvest. It is not clear whether this loan was repaid to Georgiou and what the current situation of that is.<\/p>\n<p>Read:<br \/>The peculiar case of the Picvest billions (Part 1) (Background)<br \/>The peculiar case of the Picvest billions (Part 2) (Background)<br \/>The peculiar case of the Picvest billions (Part 3) (Overvaluation of properties)<br \/>The peculiar case of the Picvest billions (Part 4) (Property transactions prior to HS companies being put into business rescue)<br \/>The peculiar case of the Picvest billions (Part 5) (Disposal of properties contradicts the intent of the business rescue plan)<br \/>The peculiar case of the Picvest\u00a0billions (Part 6) (The sale of 31 \u2018Orthotouch Properties\u2019 to Accelerate \u2013 the murky dimension)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then there is also an amount of R883\u00a0million linked to the Highveld Syndication companies that should lie somewhere in a Bosman and Partners company account if we accept what Georgiou\u2019s people said.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And there is of course still the amount of R3.3 billion that the Highveld Syndication company paid to Georgiou-linked Zephan between 2020 and 2022 for properties that were never transferred.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No responsibility has been taken for that amount. So if, during the investigations, we can get hold of this information, we can draw a line as to the location of the money \u2013 where it has been deposited and where it currently is.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>RYK VAN NIEKERK:<\/strong> Who will appoint these trustees to conduct this investigation and question witnesses and those involved?<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>LOUIS BOLT:<\/strong> That is for the creditors. There are two trustees already. The provisional trustees were appointed after the provisional sequestration order was granted in January 2024.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>RYK VAN NIEKERK:<\/strong> So how soon can that process start, because this sequestration process has lasted five years. Georgiou died in 2021.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>LOUIS BOLT:<\/strong> Yes, the delay is of course attributable to [Jacques] Du Toit \u2013 the appointed business rescue practitioner of Zephan and Orthotouch \u2013 who submitted various applications. And after his dismissal, to put it like that, as business rescue practitioner it was continued as Georgiou and his family.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s why the applications for sequestration took that long.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But to return, the attorney acting for the trustees assured me that he would take the necessary steps to get the investigation and related matters going within a week, and after the second creditors\u2019 meeting we will do the necessary to get the process moving.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>RYK VAN NIEKERK:<\/strong> Of the many investors, many are elderly and this case has dragged on since 2011. That is a very, very long time. What does it mean for them? Will it ever result in them getting something back, or could there be other creditors ahead of them in the queue?<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>LOUIS BOLT:<\/strong> Yes, there are of course creditors at the head of the queue.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our clients all have judgments awarded to them against Georgiou-linked Zephan and naturally Georgiou Trust.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have liquidated claims, whereas others such as the class action people, do not have liquidated claims.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They will have to first prove their claims in terms of the buyback agreements, such as our clients have already done. And then of course the 15 to 20 Highveld people will, if they have claims, have to prove them and submit them to the trustees or curators.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But our clients have already submitted claims as opposed to already-liquidated court verdicts that establish the claims, as opposed to the class action people.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And that is what the law prescribes \u2013 you have to have a liquidated claim and our claims have already been fixed as being so much and so much in terms of the buyback agreements.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>RYK VAN NIEKERK:<\/strong> A complex matter. Louis, thank you for your time. That was Advocate Louis Bolt, who brought the sequestration of the Georgiou estate on behalf of one of his clients.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script data-cfasync=\"false\">\n !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n 'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n fbq('init', '779812924991616');\n fbq('track', 'PageView');\n <\/script>#Georgiou #estate #finally #sequestrated #Moneyweb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can also listen to this po… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[2822,1071,14346,942,14347],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}