Johannesburg - Fraudulent cheques have halted dividend payouts to roughly 140 shareholders of Africa Media Entertainment.
On Wednesday AME issued an announcement on Sens, advising shareholders that all cheques issued in settlement of its special dividend have been stopped due to the discovery of a fraudulent cheque.
"We don't know who is responsible, but it couldn't have come from only one source," said AME Company Secretary Michelle Mynhardt. "All parties involved, including our banking partner Absa, have been contacted and the necessary steps are being taken to get to the root of the problem."
AME's special divident number three amounted to 200c per share due to the firm having a surplus of cash at its disposal for the financial year to end-March 2010.
Only one fraudulent cheque has been identified, after a person entered a Nedbank branch in Witbank and attempted to cash the cheque.
"Luckily the teller was able to see something wasn't right and contacted us immediately," said Mynhardt. "When I heard I cancelled all cheques because I wasn't going to chance anything."
The last day to trade in order to have been eligible for the dividend was March 31 2010 and payment was set for Monday April 12.
The firm is now working with Computershare and all cheque holders will receive their funds electronically once the firm has received their banking details and confirmed that they are shareholders.
"Once we've received the necessary details there is likely to be a week long lag before shareholders receive their money," said Mynhardt.
- Fin24.com