Another Jewish Ponzi scheme - with Jewish victims

[MikeWB]

Another Jewish Ponzi scheme - with Jewish victims


UK bosses caught up in alleged $1.2bn South African 'Ponzi' fraud

Leading British-Jewish businessmen are feared to have lost millions of pounds in what has been described as South Africa's largest ever Ponzi scheme.

By Richard Fletcher, Executive editor

Published: 11:00PM BST 16 Jun 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... fraud.html

Peter Long, the chief executive of Tui Travel, and Richard Kirk, his counterpart at Peacocks, are among a group of UK-based businessmen that invested in Frankel International. Monaco-based Russian investors are also said to have become entangled in the alleged fraud which has been widely compared in South Africa to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. London hedge funds are also said to have invested in the fund.

South African law enforcement agencies announced earlier this week that they were investigating businessman Barry Tannenbaum, Frankel Chemical and Frankel International following allegations of a $1.2bn (£731m) fraud. Mr Tannenbaum, who is now based in Australia, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, insisting that no fraud has been committed and that he has never duped investors.

In a joint statement, South Africa's Financial Intelligence Centre – together with the police and prosecutors – said they had teamed up to investigate allegations including fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.

"Their primary mandate is to assess the nature and validity of a range of allegations of fraud and criminality as reported during the past week," the statement said. "Prosecutors ... will be working closely with detectives ... to evaluate evidence and to determine whether to prosecute any of the persons or entities involved in this scheme."

The South African task force is reported to be considering freezing or confiscating Mr Tannenbaum's assets. He is reported to have lured hundreds of investors with the promise of monthly returns of 11.5pc linked to pharmaceutical imports in an alleged fraud reported to be worth as much as $1.2bn.

Investors were told that Frankel Chemicals traded Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) on a "continuous global basis". Frankel, it was claimed, were "the exclusive agents for the distribution of API material for many overseas multi-national prime pharmaceutical manufacturers". A number of major drug companies have denied the claims.

Some UK investors are said to have been introduced by James Patterson, a Monaco-based adviser. Mr Patterson, who is listed as a director of a number of Frankel subsidiaries, did not return calls.

He is understood to have told investors that he has, himself, been "duped" and denied any wrongdoing.

Warren Goldblatt, a South African private investigator who is working for one of Mr Tannenbaum's investors, said they were "investigating significant links to the United Kingdom".

South African investors who have reportedly lost money in the scheme include Sean Summers, the former chief executive of Pick'n Pay, one of the country's largest retailers.

Mr Kirk said: "I have a wide range of personal investments and did make a small one in this entity, although this ceased some time ago." Mr Long declined to comment.