Shoprite's Wiese positive he'll get money back

Johannesburg - One of SA's richest men, Christo Wiese, may get his £600 000 (about R7m) back, after the cash was seized at Heathrow airport in London last year, a UK official said on Wednesday.
 
"If the UK Border Agency does not suspect it is the proceeds of crime, then the money will be returned," UK Home Office spokesperson Polo Guilbert-Wright said in an email to Sapa on Wednesday.
  
"UK Border Agency officers have powers to detain any amount of cash that is declared or that they suspect is the proceeds of crime
using powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002."
  
This applied to travellers departing or arriving from European Union (EU) and non-EU destinations.
  
Earlier this week, Wiese, who is the chairperson of Shoprite Holdings [JSE:SHP], told Sapa he was carrying the money from his safety deposit box in
London to his safety deposit box in Luxembourg and that both countries were EU members.
  
MoneyWeb reported this week that UK customs had confiscated the money from Wiese in April 2009.
  
He said the matter was in the hands of his UK lawyers and that a hearing regarding the refund of his money would take place in
November.
  
"I was taking the money to Luxembourg, as I wanted to start trading again after the banking crisis," Wiese said.
  
"If I had the money in a bank it could have been transferred," he added.
  
Wiese said the matter was "a bureaucratic bungle" and that customs had given him no reason for the seizure of his funds.
 
"But my lawyers don't want me to conduct a hearing in the media," Wiese said.
  
Asked if it was prudent to carry such large sums of cash about, Wiese explained that he was used to dealing with big amounts of money because, thirty years ago, he had worked in the diamond business.
  
"But I'm positive that I'll get the money back," he said.
  
He confirmed that he was never arrested.
  
"They told me I could go, as long as I left the money."

- Sapa