Report from Informed Consumer

INFORMED CONSUMER

Leaderguard liquidator focuses on role of third parties The man who is winding up the failed foreign currency trader is focusing on recovering some of the R350 million investors lost from companies which had been involved with Leaderguard.

November 18, 2006 By Laura du Preez The liquidator of Leaderguard Spot Forex believes there is a good chance of recovering money for investors by obtaining settlements from various companies that provided services to the failed foreign currency trader. If that fails, the liquidator will institute litigation against various parties. Jose Thibaut, the liquidator, will be holding creditors' meetings later this month and early next month to inform investors of the progress he has made in establishing the best course of action to recover the money that investors lost and identifying whether any third parties may be liable for the losses. Meetings were held with creditors earlier this year and Thibaut obtained a mandate from investors to investigate ways of recovering their money. About 1 850 investors lost about R350 million when the Leaderguard Group collapsed in early 2005. The Financial Services Board (FSB) commissioned a forensic report into the activities of one of the Leaderguard companies that was based in South Africa, Leaderguard Securities, and this report has been handed over to the Scorpions. Letter to investors Sim Attorneys, which is acting for the Mauritian liquidator in South Africa as well as a number of brokers who sold investments in the Leaderguard group, sent a letter to investors last week outlining possible liability on the part of the auditors, a trust company, a bank and a financial services company that provided services to Leaderguard Spot Forex. The letter states that KPMG Mauritius was the auditing firm for Leaderguard Spot Forex and signed off an audit in 2004 without reporting the significant losses the company had made or disclosing that the trading mandates investors had given had been exceeded. Sean Sim of Sim Attorneys explains that in terms of a trading mandate, investors in Leaderguard's foreign currency products had to be notified when the value of their investments dropped either below 80 percent or 70 percent of the capital they had invested. They then needed to consent to further trading in their accounts, at the risk of further losses. Early losses According to Sim's letter, KPMG Mauritius had advised that it would close down Leaderguard Spot Forex if the foreign currency trader exceeded the trading mandates investors had given. Sim says the only way Leaderguard Spot Forex could have incurred the large losses it did would have been to exceed these trading mandates. He says Thibaut has found that Leaderguard Spot Forex and its forerunner, Leader Limited, began suffering losses as early as 2003 and while they claimed to have about US$56 million (now about R403 million) under management in February 2005, this was not the case as substantial amounts had already been lost. The money invested in Leaderguard was managed by a European bank well known for its foreign exchange services, Saxo Bank, and a London-based company, GNI, which Sim says was an Old Mutual subsidiary, and was later sold. Its name was then changed to Man Financial Services. Both GNI and Saxo Bank provided foreign currency trading services to Leaderguard Spot Forex and were aware of the trading mandates given by the investors. According to Sim's letter, Thibaut has established that by August or September 2003, more than 60 percent of the US$18 million that GNI managed had been lost or dissipated and by August 2004, 58 percent of the US$38 million supposedly managed by Saxo Bank had been lost or dissipated. By November 2004, 20 percent of the remaining money under management at Saxo Bank had been lost or dissipated. Sim's letter says Saxo should not have allowed Leaderguard Spot Forex to exceed its trading mandate and despite its concern about the way in which Leaderguard was trading, it allowed Leaderguard to continue to trade. GNI was also aware of the trading mandates investors had given, Sim's letter says, but more information about GNI's role is needed. Federal Trust, an international trust company with offices in Mauritius, acted as the custodian of funds that were invested in Leaderguard Spot Forex as required by the Financial Services Commission (FSC), the regulator of financial services in Mauritius. Two directors of Federal Trust were appointed as directors of Leaderguard Spot Forex, the two companies shared an office from the time that Leaderguard started operating out of Mauritius until July/August 2004, and all payments made by Leaderguard Spot Forex had to be co-signed by one of the directors of Federal Trust, Sim's letter says. "Federal Trust should, by all accounts have been aware of the losses 'which had been sustained' and taken requisite action in respect thereof," the letter says. Sim told Personal Finance that the prospects of recovering money from these parties was "good" and should there be settlements, money could be recovered within a year. If legal action was necessary Thibaut would obtain a mandate from investors and other creditors to proceed with such action and then any recovery of funds could take longer. Some recoveries The liquidator does not have to obtain approval from the creditors of a company in liquidation for efforts to recover money, but Thibaut has decided to consult with investors and creditors of Leaderguard Spot Forex because he believes that they should be involved in the decisions made. Sim says Thibaut's actions so far have been focused on establishing the best way to recover money for investors and not on the recovery of money itself. He has been holding inquiries under sections 417 and 418 of the Companies Act in South Africa in order to obtain information related to Leaderguard Spot Forex. Nevertheless, he has recovered some money to date. A sum of R2.9 million, which is the purchase price that was to be paid for the acquisition of a game farm, has been transferred to the liquidator's accounts. Shares to the value of about R2.5 million in Hamilton Solutions, a company that was involved in marketing Leaderguard investments to brokers, that some of the directors of Leaderguard Spot Forex and Securities had obtained, have also been transferred to the liquidator's accounts. The liquidator is also in possession of a building in Mauritius worth 15 million Mauritian rupees (about R3.4 million) purchased by Leaderguard Spot Forex, despite a continuing dispute over the ownership of the building. Court action in Mauritius Sim's letter to investors says it has been established that some of the directors of Leaderguard Spot Forex had acted negligently, recklessly and fraudulently. Two of the directors, Jacobus Venter and Hermanus Pretorius, pleaded guilty in the Intermediate Court of Mauritius to failing to comply with a directive of the FSC and of falsifying a document and contravening the island nation's Companies Act. The FSC had instructed Leaderguard Limited to repay the money it had collected from investors and obtain a new mandate from them. According to Sim's letter, this was not done. However, Leaderguard Limited fraudulently advised the FSC that this had been done and continued its operations as a new entity, Leaderguard Spot Forex. Venter and Pretorius were fined 200 000 Mauritian rupees (about R50 000) each and Leaderguard Limited was fined 100 000 Mauritian rupees. The risk manager of Leaderguard Spot Forex, Renso du Plessis, was also fined 400 000 Mauritian rupees by the Intermediate Court for his role in falsifying documents, including inflating Leaderguard Spot Forex's assets in its accounts by stating that it had made loans to subsidiary companies totalling more than US$20 million. Sim says money could be recovered from the directors, but the liquidator is of the view that he should initially focus on recovering money from third parties as these efforts are likely to be the most successful. Thanks for this article by  Laura du Preez

Leaderguard Spot Forex , KPMG , Saxo Bank, GNI Commissioner's Report & More

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         KPMG , Saxo Bank, GNI, Leaderguard Spot Forex.

Millions of  Dollars lost , Investors lost it all.


What happens in a situation like this, when all the Investors lost everything ?

Who is at fault for this ?

Is there any chance, that these Investors will  get their money back ?


Here you can see all the evidence. This is where you get be the "Judge".

You can see everything. You can read all the supporting documents.


See exactly what the Commissioner found.

Not only that, but you will find all the articles related to this case.


This is a full set of files, you will find all the documents, you can read all the reports.

KPMG ,  Saxo Bank, GNI , Leaderguard  Spot Forex, 

See the Full report. Make up your own mind on who is to blame.
Who is to blame for this Swindle ? 
Who is accountable for this great loss ?
See all the evidence. You  be the Judge.


For a Look at the Full  "Commissioner's report", News  Reports, Courts Reports, Special Police Reports and more.

KPMG ,  Saxo Bank, GNI , Leaderguard  Spot Forex, 

It is all here for you to see.


Click on this Scribd banner below, it will take you to the files and you can read everything including the the full Commissioner's  report.
There are so many files that they are to big for this site.
The files are being kept on the Scribd server, click on the banner and it will take you to them.

Come back and visit again, as we will be adding new files when they are available.

Who is Behind this ?

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The mastermind behind this fraud was four South Africans,
Renso du Plessis, Stefan Pretorius, Basie Venter and his son Juan Venter.
They ran their office in Mauritius, traded under the name of Leaderguard Spot Forex doing their business under the radar as it would seem.
Having a company like KPMG backing them ,having statements showing huge growth on individual investors accounts, with Saxo Bank  no one would have expected that it was all a Lie.

When this all went sour , they tried to keep it out of South Africa, making it impossible for the small guy, the ones who has lost everything.

They had no chance, as the legal  fees to try and fight something like this on International Soil would be enormous and the individuals would not be able to afford it. They would have just had to cut their losses and forget it.
There are 889 Investors that where caught with this scheme.
Most of them from South Africa, a lot of them losing their pensions.
The value of the first claim against KPMG is $ 35 Million.
Most of the investors have lost all their money , so how would they be able to fund this ?

One group of Brokers who where also foiled by this, decided to assist their clients and anyone that had invested in this scheme.
The Company is called Avocado investments who then called in a group of heavy weight attorneys to fight for this just cause.
Sim & Botsi Attorneys INC, took on the case headed by Sean Sim.

Through some smart work from the Investors legal team,
  they have managed to bring the fight to South Africa. 
Already having had their first day in the Durban High Court and then having it moved to the 1st of December.

The Deception

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This is the story of the "Big Swindle".

The sad thing about this is, a lot of people lost everything.People lost their life saving on a promise of better returns. The Investors who saw the names of KPMG & SAXO BANK and thought they are being protected.Well together these Companies where looking out for something and that was their profit margin. They where to concerned about their commission than actually protecting the investors money.

Well you guessed it, they lost everything I am talking about millions of Dollars of the investors money.
KPMG did not do what they where expected to do, the money was not allowed to be pooled into one account, there was a Stop loss Trade in the agreement, they did not follow, they did not care as they only watched after the commission that was due to them.

Let us backtrack and give you a bit of an idea of How the Biggest Swindle unfolded.

It all Started a few years ago when a Company was formed called Leaderguard Spot Forex. This Company got the backing of some major World players.

The likes of KPMG, Saxo Bank, GNI, FEDERAL TRUST, Hamilton solutions among others as their marketing arm and off they went.

Now what they did was they created an impression that they where huge and that they where a safe bet.The marketing kits that they put together using these BIG NAME BRANDS, was first class and would have fooled anyone into thinking that this was a real business.
They had graphs and all types of other devices, that they used to show the potential investor that this was a winning company.
Backed by World Respected Companies.
The Company traded in Forex and they where showing huge gains in there presentation portfolio.

What was supposed to happen was, that every investor in this Leaderguard Spot Forex, would have there own separate bank account that would be the investors portfolio.
Each investor would have their own Bank Account and Leaderguard even sent out statements to the investors showing them their accounts, always showing a positive growth.
All approved by our faithful KPMG.

But that was all a total lie, as there was only one Bank account set up and all the money was pooled into one account. So how they managed to send statements to all the investors was a total fabrication.
There where never any individual bank accounts created .
ONLY ONE ACCOUNT THAT POOLED ALL THE MONEY.

So now that all the money has been lost , what happens to all the people that where affected.
Why now do the BIG BOYS want to shy away from there responsibility.

This has been a big blow for many people and all the Companies involved gained from this partnership.
Now that it has turned sour, they are all acting DUMB.
Like they did not know and they think as they are so big, that they are untouchable.

Well they better think again, as there are a bunch of investors that are not going to sit down.
This is totally unacceptable from big World Players like these to just shy away from their duty and responsibility.

Having something like this happen , losing all your money through a legitimate investment and then having to hear the people involved say "I don't know", is not acceptable as they "DID KNOW" and they did nothing to stop these thieves from loosing all of those MILLIONS.

This is a typical David and Goliath scenario .

The First step has happened and the conclusion of the first day in the High Court in Durban was.

KPMG have been given until the 1st of December 2009 where they will appear in the High Court in Durban, with all their "BIG GUNS" from around the World , to again explain why they "did not know", if they where the ones who where approving everything , ensuring the investors that things where fine.

The KPMG name was used to attract the investors, the KPMG name was used to reassure investors, now that all the money is Gone.
The investors want KPMG, to be accountable for what they where supposed to do, but did not.

Keep coming back, as the story of the "Big Swindle" unfolds.

Please include your  comments to this post.