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Johannesburg - Alleged Ponzi scheme mastermind Barry Tannenbaum is apparently renting an apartment in an Australian suburb called Runaway Bay, the Sunday Times reported.
The newspaper said Tannenbaum's Johannesburg-based lawyer Darryl Ackerman confirmed Tannenbaum's location in the waterfront suburb located on Australia's Gold Coast.
Last November, it was reported that Tannenbaum - who is accused of fleecing investors of R12.5bn - had fled his home in St Ives in Sydney, Australia, out of safety concerns.
Ackerman told the newspaper that Tannenbaum and his wife, Debbie, had received death threats while staying in St Ives.
"This is the reason why they left St Ives, and if you publish the article it would rebound to their detriment, forcing them to find some other location," he was quoted as saying.
The Sunday Times said it was believed that Debbie Tannenbaum had put down a deposit on a property in another Gold Coast suburb.
However, Ackerman said that neither Tannenbaum or his wife were in a position to buy property in Australia.
"Neither Barry nor Debbie are in any position to finance any grandiose idea of a new home," he said.
Ackerman also told the newspaper that the process by which Tannenbaum was applying for Australian citizenship "has not been finalised".
In terms of the investigation into the Ponzi scheme, SA Revenue Service spokesperson Adrian Lackay told the newspaper that a letter was sent to investors.
The letter apparently gave investors three weeks to detail their investments with the scheme.
Lackay said the letter was part on an investigative process to get a full picture of what happened.
Arrest warrant
"Each agency of government is pursuing the matter, not only in terms of its own legal mandate, but also in terms of a common approach that seeks to prevent our financial system being breached," he was quoted as saying.
In October 2009, South African authorities issued an arrest warrant for Tannenbaum and his Swiss-based associate Dean Rees over the Ponzi scheme.
The Sunday Times reported that next month, Rees would also go to the High Court in Johannesburg to fight against having his estate finally sequestrated.
In October Qatar-based Barwa Real Estate Company QSC made a bid to sequestrate his estate.
In a statement, Dewey and LeBoeuf said Barwa, in its founding affidavit, alleged that Rees fraudulently, and as part of an alleged Ponzi scheme, misappropriated a sum of at least $12.7m.
It was further alleged that, together with Barry Tannenbaum, Rees was liable for a sum in excess of $30m, which Barwa had made available for the purposes of financing the purchase of active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Barwa received a freeze order against the assets of Dean Rees on September 1.
At the time Judge Mohamed Jajbhay ordered that the estate of Dean Rees be placed in provisional sequestration and that Rees be called upon to advance reasons why the sequestration order should not be made final before February 9.
Last year, a massive Ponzi scheme was discovered, allegedly involving Tannenbaum's company Frankel Chemicals, which was supposedly in the business of buying pharmaceutical ingredients and then selling them on to generic drug manufacturers.
It has been alleged that Tannenbaum supported the scheme by showing prospective investors fraudulent purchase orders from major pharmaceutical companies.
The Ponzi scheme involved at least eight foreign jurisdictions and was reported to have fleeced some of South Africa's most accomplished business people.
- Sapa
