Belvedere collapses after Ponzi scheme exposé

Cape Town - Cobus Kellermann’s Belvedere Management has collapsed, six months after being exposed for a Ponzi scheme.

Read the full story here.

Offshore Alert, a US-based company which specialises in uncovering fraud in offshore financial centres, in March called out Belvedere, describing it as “a massive criminal enterprise”. Belvedere, which controlled assets worth an eye-popping R200bn, was jointly owned by Kellermann and his Irish business partner David Cosgrove.

READ: Capetonian Kellermann accused as kingpin of R200bn Belvedere Ponzi

Fin24's content partner BizNews on Thursday reported that only six months after the exposé, it has now officially been confirmed that R4bn of investor money was gone and billions more were unaccounted for.

BizNews in March did their own research following the Offshore Alert tip-off and found that the size of Belvedere’s alleged Ponzi scheme dwarfs anything that has hit South Africans before. It is 10 times the scale of the well-publicised Barry Tannenbaum scam.

READ: How we exposed alleged Belvedere Ponzi scam - deVere Group

Alec Hogg, owner and publisher of BizNews, said on Thursday that "the wheels of justice grind slowly, but, even when they uncover tentacles that run from South Africa to Guernsey, Mauritius, Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands and Anguilla, those wheels do grind finely".

He said that following the publication of the alleged Ponzi scheme, his website was briefly paralysed by a cyber attack, followed by legal threats from SA heavyweight legal firm Werksmans, which accused Biznews and Offshore Alert of sensationalism and being irresponsible.

READ: Guernsey Financial Regulator: How Kellermann manipulated Belvedere funds’ NAVs

Biznews is set to publish a special podcast later on Thursday, in which Offshore Alert's David Marchant provides an update on "the unraveling of a global network of fraud, fuelled by deceit, blatant lies and corrupt financial advisers".

UPDATE:

Since publication of the article above, several regulatory authorities have conducted investigations into the allegations of fraud and of a possible Ponzi scheme and have found as follows:

The Guernsey Financial Services Commission having reviewed their Enforcement Division’s report and accompanying evidence concluded that no further action will be taken and that their proceedings are at an end.

The US based Chartered Financial Analyst Institute stated, after reviewing the information available to them, that their Professional Conduct program decided to close its investigation and to take no disciplinary action, reserving the right to reopen the matter if new information comes to hand.

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority found no evidence of any breaches of the relevant South African financial sector laws.