WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-06-28 Time: 16:00:02 Posted By: Jan
Editor: Personal Finance
Accused number one in a R1-billion retirement fund surplus stripping criminal case, Peter Ghavalas, has had his bail conditions relaxed to allow him to return to Australia until the case is brought before the Witwatersrand High Court in May next year.
The trial was supposed to have commenced on August 4 this year. The delay in the trial and the change in bail conditions have astounded both the Financial Services Board and Tony Mostert, the curator of the nine pension funds affected by the surplus stripping.
The change in bail conditions were not referred to either Mostert or the FSB.
Ghavalas, who is alleged to have benefited by about R40-million from the surplus stripping the 1990s, applied to the High Court this week for the relaxation of his bail conditions to allow him to return to Australia until the start of his trial.
His bail has, however, been increased from R1-million to R5-million.
Charges against his wife June Noreen Ghavalas have also been dropped, allowing her to return to Australia as well.
Ghavalas recently unsuccessfully attempted to conclude a plea-bargain agreement with the state which would have allowed him to escape a prison sentence. This, however, was rejected by the FSB which felt he should go to prison.
Ghavalas, who had emigrated to Australia, was arrested in August 2005 when he returned to SA to visit his mother who was extremely ill.
In an affidavit supporting his bail appeal, Ghavalas said that he has reached agreement with the state on the variation on his bail conditions because after three years the prosecuting authorities were unable to continue with the trial on August 4, as had been set down at previous remands.
Both Mostert and Rob Barrow, the out-going chief executive of the FSB, expressed surprise and disappointment yesterday at the decision to delay the trial of Ghavalas and others involved in the alleged pension frauds.
The FSB brought in former Transvaal attorney general, Jan D’Oliviera, to prosecute.
Chris Jordaan, a special director of prosecutions and head of the commercial crime unit, said yesterday that the trial had been delayed because of current problems with resources.
Ghavalas is a former financial director of IGI, senior manager of Finansbank and assistant general manager of Nedbank Investment Bank.
The state alleges that Ghavalas was the architect of the laundering schemes and received substantial “dividends”, amounting to R40-million from 1992-1997 through his company Soundprops 178.
At the time of his arrest Dube Tshidi, the FSB deputy executive in charge of pension funds, said that “in the course of our investigation, the FSB have gathered sufficient evidence that Ghavalas exercised effective control over the execution of the transactions whereby various funds’ surpluses were laundered through the Lifecare Pension Fund and paid to the participating employers of the Funds and to third parties.
“He was instrumental in procuring approval for the various transactions, by controlling the information furnished to them. In particular, Mr Ghavalas ensured that the mechanics of his surplus laundering scheme were kept secret by enforcing confidential terms which he had the contracting parties sign before he would disclose how his laundering scheme operated.
“This resulted in fraudulent misrepresentations being made to the registrar,” Tshidi said.