Raiders of The Tomb (Part II)

Read Raiders of The Tomb (Part I)

I'm for truth no matter who tells it. I'm for justice no matter who it's for or against. Malcolm X

Now it’s here, now it’s nowhere: following the money is never easy – and it’s often a dangerous occupation. Especially when the guys you’re after are holding the keys to the final vault. But as the X-Files professes ‘The Truth Is Out There’.

Sometime in 1989, shortly before his death, the work of administering the affairs of the estate (No. 1635/1990) of the late Frans Johannes van Tonder was handed to the executives of FNB Trust Services. The ailing man, having decided who would manage his estate for his daughter’s benefit, was in daily contact with a range of banking officials. Under the pressure of his imminent death, the man appears to have done his best to put his financial affairs into some kind of order. Records tracked by this team of journalists and information and data scientists, copies of which are also in uSpiked’s possession, show that in the weeks leading to his November demise, Van Tonder was in constant talks with various FirstRand executives.  

It’s strongly suspected that, with Van Tonder on his deathbed – attended at times by FirstRand-linked staff – a scheme was already being hatched to fleece the massive estate. The whole situation was ripe for it: a multitude of companies, deposits, property and stock portfolios and bank accounts, both personal and business, without any linking framework. A crooked liquidator’s delight. The bankers held his Last Will & Testament and they knew he was dying. 

But this report isn’t about the individual executives, but about the culpability of the holding company, FirstRand Ltd that empowered the executives to run amok. 

The Administration of Estate Act No. 66 of 1965 is quite clear on procedures to be followed. The bankers followed the Act as far as the requirement of the reporting of the death and delivering the will to the office of the Master of the high court in Pretoria. As executors, they also wrote to the Master requesting Letters of Executorship. 

Soon after the appointment, the executors are expected to draw a detailed inventory of assets and liabilities. They must also open a single bank account in the name of the estate of the deceased. The authors of the legislation and its Regulations and Rules must have envisioned that some assets and liabilities may only be discovered during the often-lengthy liquidation and distribution processes. Executors are thus allowed to adjust their statements of account as the work progresses. However, the final Liquidation & Distribution statements of account filed with the Master of the High Court, must be just that; final. 

The bankers at FNB Trust Services had their scheme worked out to deceive the heir of their dead clients. FNB Trust Services, in a sworn statement, say they never opened individual bank accounts for every Estate in their books, but instead heaped all moneys from each dead client in a pool-like account in the name of FNB Trust Services. An illegality that is clearly designed to aid the siphoning of any recoverable at their pleasure behind the mourning relatives. 

“The manner in which the bank accounts were conducted is that the first respondent (FNB Trust Services) as the trust company held banking account with the second respondent (FirstRand Ltd). The banking account would contain the funds of all of the various trust clients of the first respondent in much the same way as an attorney’s trust account would.” 

This is extracted from Paragraph 21.23 of an affidavit sworn by Barbara Catharine Botha, a legal compliance officer with FirstRand Ltd when Analize requested copies of the bank account that the legislation required the executors to open for her father’s estate. (link)

The works of executors named in a Will or the Estate Officers of deceased estates, even if they are lawyers, are strictly governed by the Administration of Estate Act that is regulated and supervised by the office of the Master of the high court. So for bankers to claim privileges accorded to lawyers, smells rotten. 

On the inventory, the legislation does not compromise on the rules. All assets and liabilities must be inventorised. But in the late Van Tonder’s case, and we have since discovered several other similar cases where the bankers deliberately and selectively withheld certain assets. 

The usage of the word ‘deliberately’ is well advised. The evidence in our possession indicates that not only did the top executives at the bank’s head office know about the ‘misplaced’ assets, but did everything in their executive powers to hide their illegalities, not just from the families involved and the office of the Master, but also from the Receiver of Revenue. 

Following the money 

As per the final inventory filed with the Master’s office in Pretoria on 15 July 1991, HC Strauss, the FNB Trust Services’ assigned executor, signed off a total of nine bank accounts that were previously held by the deceased in his personal capacity and his various businesses. These were:

• 4005372143 in the name of F J van Tonder

• 9000515426 in the name of F J van Tonder

• 347906409730 (Investment Acc FJ van Tonder

• 790107090095121 (Gold Credit Card) in the name of FJ Van Tonder

• 8002743043 in the name of Wema Konstruksie (Pty) Ltd

• 4002913542 in the name of Wes Oranje (Pty) Ltd

• 4002077817 in the name of Pegma Minerale (Pty) Ltd

• 3002891107 in the name of Wema Groep (Pty) Ltd

• 347907000267-01 (Investment Acc) in the name of Wema Beleggings (Pty) Ltd 

The inventorised bank accounts were all held at another FirstRand Limited subsidiary, First National Bank (FNB). And they appeared to have been well selected: these were the accounts with the lowest balances. 

Using comparative data processing and analysis, our computer application, after feeding-in various traceable bank deposit details, managed to identify at least twelve other FNB held bank accounts that were not declared by the executives. These were:

• 2008062897512 in the name of Wema Konstruksie (Pty) Ltd

• 27430433972-01 (Cheque Acc.) in the name of FJ Van Tonder

• 29162744715-01 (Cheque Acc.) in the name of FJ Van Tonder

• 53721431511-01 (Cheque Acc.) in the name of FJ Van Tonder

• 341904003559-01 (Investment Acc.) in the name of FJ Van Tonder

• 28975123972-01 in the name of Wema Konstruksie (Pty) Ltd

• 67590334073-01 in the name of Wema Bouvoorsieners (Pty) Ltd

• 28911073972-01 in the name of Wema Groep (Pty) Ltd

• 20778173972-01 in the name of Pegma Minerale (Pty) Ltd

• 2002887894 in the name of Wema Beleggings (Pty) Ltd

• 28878943972-02 in the name of Wema Beleggings (Pty) Ltd

• 29135423972-01 in the name of Wes-Oranje (Pty) Ltd 

The failure to declare the above bank accounts, we can now prove, were not due to system errors or malfunctions, but indicated a well-organised bank-accounts-hijack-scheme known only to various top executives of the bank. These would have been individuals with enough security clearance to bypass the bank’s internal personnel management systems that would identify whoever accesses any account at any given time. 

Among the proofs in our possession are copies of print-outs provided from an FNB branch in December 2013, showing that certain individuals within the bank deemed it profitable to maintain that FJ Van Tonder’s status as ‘alive’ – after 24 years of his passing-on – and still transacting businesses on these accounts. 

The same individuals also found it appropriate to change Van Tonder’s physical address from his home in George to FirstRand’s head office, care of a non-registered business, Equity Management Services. 

Walking into a local FNB branch in December 2013 with her father’s ID. Analize was shocked to find that her father was still listed in the bank’s system as alive. Whoever authorized and effected the change of addresses soon after his death, conveniently failed to update his status on the bank’s system. They surely knew what they intended to achieve. What happened to the funds held in those twelve bank accounts? 

Analize’s initial inquiry centered on the activities within the estate of her late father. She believed that would help her understand just why the bankers had hesitated to provide her with the much-needed information for the IRS. But when she requested the estate’s records, executives of FNB Trust Services refused to cooperate. She proceeded to the Pretoria Master’s office where she officially obtained copies of all records as were filed by the bankers. 

There were several unexplainable payouts recorded in the accounts. Her attention was however briefly diverted to a 1991/92 Income Tax Return document No. 2297082642 prepared on behalf of the testamentary FJ Van Tonder / Analize Trust by a ZC Havenga of Havenga Accounting Services. The name seemed familiar to her. 

Analize then retained the services of KPMG Services (Pty) Ltd to undertake due diligence on all Estate Officers and Trustees who had ever handled the Estate and the Trust. When the KPMG findings were delivered, her suspicions were confirmed; ZC Havenga was Zonia Cecilia Havenga, wife of FNB Trust Services executive, Hendrik Havenga, who was identified as Estate Officer No. 6. Havenga Accounting Services was never constituted as a legal entity anywhere within the republic. 

Raiders of The Tomb (Part II) - Magical Disappearances

Also suspicious were numerous payments made to a company called Honolulu Konstruksie cc. One such payment was made on 5 November 1993 for R124,272.43. The invoice for this particular payments and all others claimed by the alleged company, bore the VAT Vendor No. 4850111230. To the Master of the High Court, these may have appeared as legitimate settlements of claims. In the analysis of this report, they appear as nothing short of money laundering. 

This team’s investigation quickly discovered that, prior to 1999, Honolulu Konstruksie cc was a creation of accountants at Claassen Stone in Springbok – the same firm FNB Trust Services used to run the affairs of both the Estate and the Trust. SARS confirm that VAT No. 4850111230 was never assigned to any corporation. 

Also suspicious and clearly not provided for in the legislation was an application made by the bankers for a Credit Card in the names of one of the late Van Tonder’s companies. In the application, Bankers Ian Charles Allison and Marilyn Kay Lamprecht sought and were issued with a Master Card Credit Card No. 522100103 with a monthly credit limit of R30,000 in the names of Pegma Minerale (Pty) Ltd. 

If the application was legitimate, why didn’t they make it at their own bank? And why aren’t there any records at the Master’s office reflecting the various transactions undertaken with the Card? Not even the Credit Cards’ fees could be found in the parallel investigations. 

According to the Act, the executors or the estate officers could liquidate (sell) various assets to settle any liabilities, but this must be explained to the Master’s of the high court. But incurring credit card debts on behalf of an estate is a new one. 

Faced with these anomalies and contravention of the Administration of Estate Act, Analize requested from FirstRand Ltd copies of all bank statements for the FJ Van Tonder Estate as per the legislation. The response from the bank that received the 2012 BAI-Finacle Global Banking Innovation Awards was an emphatic no. They were not willing to hand over records to the heir of their deceased client. 

Sensing she was onto something big, Analize took off her gloves and launched a David and Goliath legal battle. She held to her belief that what had been going on behind the scenes would inevitably be revealed.

Read Raiders of The Tomb (Part III)