Time’s up for Casanova fraudster
Victims have opened multiple cases against Fouché in recent years but his latest target, a senior police officer, may prove to be his downfall
Former Kwazulu-natal magistrate Johan Carel Fouché, dubbed the Casanova fraudster for the way he smooth-talked and romanced some of his victims, has been arrested after allegedly defrauding a woman who happened to be a senior police officer in Gauteng.
Fouché appeared in the Benoni magistrate’s court last week on a charge of fraud, the latest of several cases that have been opened against him over the past 11 years.
This comes as a group of seven people are gathering evidence for a further criminal case against his business associate, Leonie Dempers, who they allege scammed them out of their homes through an elaborate “debt rescue” scheme. Unlike Fouché, Dempers has not previously been convicted of fraud.
A Mail & Guardian investigation in 2022 that involved interviews with several complainants who claimed to have been defrauded by Fouché uncovered how he and Dempers allegedly conned them out of cash and their homes in a string of incidents dating back to 2012.
Police spokesperson Colonel Brenda Muridili said Fouché was arrested in Garsfontein, Pretoria two weeks ago.
“In this case, the complainant was defrauded by a man who identified himself as John Carel Fouché who told her that he works for a debt counselling company called Capital Legacy,” Muridili said.
“She paid over R90 000 for her debt rehabilitation and then lent the perpetrator about R14 000, she only received a portion of her money back and that [is] when she opened a case. [Fouché] is currently going through the court processes.”
Fouché is being held in custody in the Modderfontein prison and is expected to appear in court again this week. The victim of the scam, whose name is known to the M&G, declined to comment.
Grant Fietze, Capital Legacy head of marketing, said the company had no association with Fouché, who it appeared had used its name fraudulently.
Western Cape Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani earlier confirmed that police are investigating at least five fraud cases against Fouché and Dempers, while Muridili confirmed an additional earlier fraud case against Fouché.
Fouché, who was previously sentenced to seven years imprisonment and a further five years suspended after being convicted of 70 counts of fraud, went on the prowl again after serving time in Westville prison. He previously worked as a relief magistrate serving in courts across Kwazulu-natal, including Pietermaritzburg.
The M&G investigation found that by 2022 he appeared to have found up to 30 new victims, whom he cheated out of hundreds of thousands of rand. The most recent case involving the police captain is believed to be just one of several additional incidents.
At the time of the M&G’S initial investigation, Fouché was named on the website of Asiphakame Financial Services as its chief operating officer, which he ran with chief executive officer Dempers. The company was not registered with the National Credit Regulator or the Financial Conduct Services Authority.
The firm, whose website no longer exists, described itself as “a complete financial wellness partner to our clients” promising to help over-indebted consumers with services including “loan sourcing”, “credit record rehabilitation”, “bond originating” and “bond rescue”.
Asiphakame advertised on its website that its services included “helping people whose bonds are already in distress; often to the point of stopping the execution sale on the day of the auction and saving our client’s house”.
Fouché and Dempers have allegedly preyed on numerous desperate people. A favoured scheme was to withdraw the equity out of their properties.
Asked previously to comment about the complaints and fraud cases clients have successfully opened against them, Fouché and Dempers said these were civil matters and that the people involved had signed agreements and later changed their minds.
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) in the Western Cape and police in Gauteng earlier confirmed they are investigating six fraud cases against Fouché and Dempers. However the M&G understands there are at least 30 people who have fallen prey to the alleged scheme.
Several homeowners who were in financial distress claim Fouché and Dempers conned them out of cash and sold their homes to “investors” in elaborate schemes.
The pair would open a business in the name of both the indebted homeowner victim and an investor who would rent the property to the homeowner.
The victims were told they would have the option to buy it back after seven years. The scheme led to the property being legally transferred into the names of the investors, with
fresh bond accounts in their names.
The victim would pay rent into one of Fouché’s business accounts and he was supposed to pay the rent to the investor, who would pay the new bond every month.
However, homeowners and investors soon realised, when Fouché failed to pay over the funds and the bond accounts fell into arrears, that the scheme had collapsed. The banks then sold their homes on public auction and they were unable to get answers from Fouché or Dempers.
Dempers announced in August 2016 that she had liquidated her company, Edenglo Holdings, claiming there had been losses due to some “unintentional miscalculations” that she would rectify. However, to date, homeowners have not been compensated.
Dirk Burger, one of the homeowners who claims he was defrauded by Dempers, this week welcomed Fouché’s arrest, saying he is still fighting to get his house back in the Western Cape High Court after FNB foreclosed on his bond.
“It gives me a bit of faith in the system that he wasn’t released on bail. But the thing is the state needs to prove the case. So it all depends on how well the state does work,” Burger said.
“But hopefully by now, they should be able to have enough evidence to convict him because he is in and out the whole time, and then he disappears and then suddenly he rocks up in another place,” Burger said.
Burger initially won his matter against FNB in the Western Cape High Court but FNB later won the matter on appeal. However, undeterred, Burger has vowed to fight the matter right up to the highest court in the land if necessary.
“What I said in court is that even if I don’t win this case now, I will definitely win further on, because I will fight this thing with all my resources possible,” Burger said.
He alleged that Fouché and Dempers have been working together since at least 2014 as far as he is aware.
“They have absolutely no sense of remorse, or conscience,” he claimed.
Lizl van Rooyen, a paralegal, who was still studying to qualify when she was allegedly scammed by Dempers and her firm Edenglo in 2012, said she is gathering evidence on behalf of seven victims for a criminal case that the Hawks are busy investigating.
She said she had sold her home to an investor that Dempers had introduced to her but the home was eventually sold under execution by Absa after the new bond on the property was not paid.
Van Rooyen welcomed the arrest of Fouché. “I am ecstatic with regards to the successful arrest of Johan Carel Fouché, which was long overdue,” Van Rooyen said.
“What remains a mystery to me is that Johan Carel Fouché (who was previously convicted of fraud) and his accomplice Leonie Douglas Dempers have escaped the Hawks and the law for many years despite ample cases and investigations against both of them,” she said.
“Johan Carel Fouché and Leonie Douglas Dempers have, with their connections, defrauded many innocent people for years.”
An NPA spokesperson had not responded to a request for comment regarding the status of Fouché’s matter following his latest court appearance on 4 April by print deadline.
Dempers declined to comment on Fouché’s arrest and the complaints against her.
‘I am ecstatic with regards to the arrest of Johan Carel Fouché, which was long overdue’