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Cape Town - A crowdfunding drive has been launched on Thundafund to gather funds to pay a R100 000 fine incurred by investor James Gubb for his Gupta 'share price art'.
Gubb was fined by the Financial Services Board (FSB) for contravening the Financial Markets Act.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the FSB said that in late March, Gubb had created a "false and deceptive appearance" of trading activity when he traded shares in Gupta-owned Oakbay between two of his accounts.
When plotted, the share-price graph created the outline of a clenched fist and a raised middle finger.
Now a drive has been started on crowdfunding platform Thundafund to pay Gubb’s fine.
"Our primary objective is to raise the R100 000 required to pay James Gubb's fine, but [we] have agreed that should we succeed and exceed the fund requirements, we will identify worthy causes fighting to eradicate corruption and donate the balance to those organisations," said the fund’s starters Linzy Mothusi and Gareth Moll.
"Linzy Mothusi and Gareth Moll are two individuals who have never met in person, but managed to come together over social media in the comments section of the article relating to this incident, and decided to take a stand and support the cause they both feel so strongly about," states Thundafund's website.
Share price art
In a statement by Gubb in response to the FSB, he explained that the trades were a form of protest against state capture.
"I traded in Oakbay on 31 March with the view of creating an intraday image that would aptly convey my contempt and outrage at the actions of such people, and bring attention to the relationship between the Gupta family and Oakbay," he said.
Gubb said that he considered several principles before executing the plan.
These being that no profit would be made from the activity, nobody would be harmed by its execution, and that monetary amounts would be trivial.
"Upon completion of the trading program, the whole exercise would return to the previous closing price," he said.
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