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Five “participants or victims” in an illegal Ponzi scheme unsuccessfully attempted to have their investments returned to them from funds in three bank accounts of the alleged orchestrator of the scheme.
These funds were declared forfeited to the state in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca).
The applicants applied to the High Court in Durban for a variation to the forfeiture order to allow them to get their investments back.
The applicants claimed they were unaware the Crypto Mzansi Group scheme, which solicited investments largely through social media platforms, was illegal despite the promised abnormally large returns on these investments.
This included a 3 000 percent return on a so-called long-term investment of nine months that promised to transform an investment of R10 000 to R300 000.
However, in dismissing their application, acting Judge Garth Davis said the applicants got involved in a scheme promising quite astronomical rates of interest, and “the common cause facts do not suggest that they were unaware that the scheme was illegal”.
“Forfeiture is not founded on the basis of a conviction or even of a charge being preferred in a criminal trial, it suffices that the funds were an instrumentality of the crime.
“There are no considerations in this matter that warrant a variation of the order.”On the papers the order of forfeiture in the circumstances was neither disproportionate nor arbitrary,” he said.
“A clear crime has been committed.”
The applications
The three applications by the five “participants or victims” were consolidated and heard together.
Shaun and Remanah Gadiah, Kevin Ramlall and Sarika Ramnarain, and Evashni Singh all cited the National Director of Public Prosecutions in their application for a variation order to the forfeiture order granted on 17 March 2023 for R4 547 820.47 in three bank accounts belonging to Mfundo Manci, the sole director of the Crypto Mzansi Group. — Moneyweb
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