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Cape Town – Alleged Belvedere Ponzi scam kingpin Cobus Kellermann will probably be living the life of a billionaire in Australia sooner than you can spell P-O-N-Z-I.
That’s according to BizNews publisher Alec Hogg, who broke the story about the scam. He told Fin24 in a video interview that it is common practice for wealthy South Africans hiding from the law to scuttle off to the land Down Under.
He said Kellerman likely made a quick escape to Mauritius to join his wingman David Cosgrove, and said they will both probably flee to Australia soon.
“The scary thing about this is that he [Kellerman] is almost certainly out of the country already,” said Hogg. “He’s almost certainly on his way to Australia.
“The reason for that is that Australia does not allow criminals to be extradited to South Africa,” he said, adding that Australia believes South African prisons are so bad that they go against human rights.
“So if you’re a crook, it’s very easy,” he said. “Get on a plane to Australia and you’re made.”
“We have a recent example of John Stratton, who was intimately involved in the Brett Kebble sage. He’s living as large as life in Perth, Australia.
“A more recent example is Barry Tannenbaum [who ran a R10bn Ponzi scheme],” he said. “Barry Tannenbaum is driving an Uber car in Australia today.”
Watch the News24 Live studio interview with Alec Hogg:
Going after the kingpin
Hogg said there will be many consequences. “The Financial Services Board have now finally woken up,” he said. “I have spoken to them this morning. They’re onto the case very quickly.”
Hogg said he spoke to a financial adviser on Tuesday, who said that he told the Financial Services Board in 2009 about the Belvedere Ponzi scheme. “He laid it all out for them,” said Hogg. “They ignored him.”
“There is a litany of errors and now … it’s all coming apart.
“There are so many stories coming out of this,” he said. “You open the can of worms and they come crawling out.”
The Mauritian authorities, where the scam is based, have also taken note of the OffshoreAlert report and will prevent them from doing anything more, said Hogg.
OffshoreAlert spent three months researching the scam and wrote this on their website: “Offshore fund group Belvedere Management, which claims to have $16bn of assets under administration, management and advisory, appears to be one of the biggest criminal financial enterprises in history, headed by David Cosgrove, Cobus Kellermann and Kenneth Maillard, OffshoreAlert can reveal.”
deVere clients warned
Belvedere was the distribution hub, which received funds from Clarus and other organisations, Hogg wrote on BizNews.com. “Among them was deVere, a global financial sales and marketing operation which has a large presence in South Africa.”
He told Fin24 that he did not think deVere was involved directly, “but they had been putting their clients’ money into Kellermann’s operation”.
A deVere employee told Hogg that Kellermann would call daily, telling him to put money into his fund.
“There are a lot of people who are going to be hurt,” he said. “They don’t even know yet that they are hurt. I would say if you’re a client of deVere, get hold of your financial adviser quickly and find out what deVere are doing to try get the money back.
“If you’ve got [any] money that’s gone into Mauritius, you’ve got to start now – quickly – to find out where it’s gone.
“It must be a lesson to every single person who gives their money to somebody who is investing it on your behalf,” he said. “Ask 100 questions. It’s your money, not theirs. They will always give you the story you want to hear.”
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.
