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Johannesburg - A property project which was supposed to be the biggest in South Africa to date is part of an massive global fraud in which falsified bank guarantees worth millions of euros were used.
The plans of the controversial Katota company, which undertook to buy more than 100 South African property developments worth billions, were based on guarantees that now appear to have been falsified.
The property developers were assured that funding was on the way. It would have been obtained by means of bank guarantees worth €50bn that a Philippine investor, Dr Eddie Gil, had issued to Katota.
Three international banks have meanwhile indicated that these bank guarantees are forgeries. The banks, Royal Bank Baku in Azerbeidjan, Royal Investment Bank in Dubai and ING Bank in Amsterdam, said they had severed all business ties with Katota.
The South African developers are meanwhile not only waiting for their money, but they made millions of rands available to Katota to help it obtain financing. They are probably in danger of losing everything.
Sake24 is in possession of emails in which the banks confirm that the documents were falsified, as were copies of the so-called bank guarantees.
The documents in which Royal Investment Bank is mentioned are fraudulent, writes the bank's chief executive Mohamed Ahmadi.
Theo Ruyter, a senior researcher at ING Netherlands, also notes in an email that the documents are false and their authenticity cannot be verified.
These guarantees were designed to help Katota obtain loans from international banks for its ambitious property projects in South Africa, as well as for projects elsewhere on the continent.
A couple of years ago Katota head Joseph Eshun announced with much fanfare that he wanted to invest around R55bn in the South African property market. More than 100 developers allowed themselves to get sucked into the plans after Katota had more than 500 property projects evaluated.
It's not the first sleight of hand executed by Gil. Last year in Mauritius he was found guilty of attempting to obtain a $20m loan from Investec Mauritius, also by submitting a false bank guarantee.
That bank guarantee, ostensibly from Société Générale in France, stated that the Goldfields World¬wide company, chaired by Gil, had a €10bn credit balance. Investigation brought to light that this was a fictitious amount and a charge of fraud was laid, following which he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment.
Eshun, who currently lives in Dubai, told Sake24 by email that Gil had been acquitted of all charges and released last week.
Sake24 confidentially ascertained that South African developers had had to contribute generously so that Gil could get his passport back as it had been retained by his attorney until the legal fees were settled.
According to a source who wishes to remain anonymous, the South African developers, who each had handed Katota R110 000 to have their developments valued, had also apparently made four payments to Gil of $200 000 each plus $50 000 – a total of $850 000 (about R6.2m).
The plans of the controversial Katota company, which undertook to buy more than 100 South African property developments worth billions, were based on guarantees that now appear to have been falsified.
The property developers were assured that funding was on the way. It would have been obtained by means of bank guarantees worth €50bn that a Philippine investor, Dr Eddie Gil, had issued to Katota.
Three international banks have meanwhile indicated that these bank guarantees are forgeries. The banks, Royal Bank Baku in Azerbeidjan, Royal Investment Bank in Dubai and ING Bank in Amsterdam, said they had severed all business ties with Katota.
The South African developers are meanwhile not only waiting for their money, but they made millions of rands available to Katota to help it obtain financing. They are probably in danger of losing everything.
Sake24 is in possession of emails in which the banks confirm that the documents were falsified, as were copies of the so-called bank guarantees.
The documents in which Royal Investment Bank is mentioned are fraudulent, writes the bank's chief executive Mohamed Ahmadi.
Theo Ruyter, a senior researcher at ING Netherlands, also notes in an email that the documents are false and their authenticity cannot be verified.
These guarantees were designed to help Katota obtain loans from international banks for its ambitious property projects in South Africa, as well as for projects elsewhere on the continent.
A couple of years ago Katota head Joseph Eshun announced with much fanfare that he wanted to invest around R55bn in the South African property market. More than 100 developers allowed themselves to get sucked into the plans after Katota had more than 500 property projects evaluated.
It's not the first sleight of hand executed by Gil. Last year in Mauritius he was found guilty of attempting to obtain a $20m loan from Investec Mauritius, also by submitting a false bank guarantee.
That bank guarantee, ostensibly from Société Générale in France, stated that the Goldfields World¬wide company, chaired by Gil, had a €10bn credit balance. Investigation brought to light that this was a fictitious amount and a charge of fraud was laid, following which he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment.
Eshun, who currently lives in Dubai, told Sake24 by email that Gil had been acquitted of all charges and released last week.
Sake24 confidentially ascertained that South African developers had had to contribute generously so that Gil could get his passport back as it had been retained by his attorney until the legal fees were settled.
According to a source who wishes to remain anonymous, the South African developers, who each had handed Katota R110 000 to have their developments valued, had also apparently made four payments to Gil of $200 000 each plus $50 000 – a total of $850 000 (about R6.2m).
