Lawyer accused as radio feud gets louder

PROMINENT businessman Peter-Paul Ngwenya has lodged a complaint with the law society against an attorney who, he claims, swindled him out of shares worth millions of rands.

This is the latest row in the quarrel between Ngwenya and Investec Bank chairman Fani Titi. Now, however, lawyer Zoe Banchetti, who drew up the contracts when Ngwenya and Titi bought shares in Gagasi FM and Heart FM, has been dragged into the fight. Titi allegedly diluted Ngwenya’s stake and then sold some of the shares to Banchetti, without Ngwenya’s knowledge.

In his complaint to the Northern Provinces Law Society, Ngwenya accuses Banchetti of swindling him out of his shares and claims there was a conflict of interest in the transaction.

Earlier this month the Sunday Times revealed that the fight over the lucrative radio shares turned the two former friends into enemies — which resulted in Ngwenya spending a few hours at a police station a week before Christmas for allegedly contravening a protection order Titi obtained against him.

Ngwenya and Titi had been partners, through their respective companies Columbia Falls Properties 124 and Alphabet Street Properties 98, in acquiring Makana Investment Corporation’s equity stakes in Makana Radio Communications.

Ngwenya claims Titi approached Investec for funding for both companies but used a different company, Tsiya Radio Limited, instead of Alphabet, which had entered into the sale agreement in the acquisition of the stations.

In his complaint to the law society, Ngwenya wrote: “In terms of the Investec agreement it is a completely different entity called Tsiya that approached Investec and not Columbia and Alphabet as per [Makana Radio Communications] and Shanike agreements. Tsiya borrowed R32million as opposed to the R48million Makana asking price. Tsiya (Titi) informed Investec STATIC: Fani Titi, left, and Peter-Paul Ngwenya have had a public falling out over shares in a private broadcaster that Tsiya had accepted an offer from Makana to acquire the radio assets.

“Zoe (Banchetti) knowingly recorded these untruths in the Investec agreement and as a result the shares were fraudulently transferred to Tsiya and share certificates issued to Tsiya instead of Columbia and Alphabet. Zoe as my attorney failed to bring this to my attention or to offer me advice.”

Banchetti said Titi, as the sole shareholder at Alphabet, had chosen to hold all the shares in Tsiya.

She said there was never any conflict of interest as she represented only Titi in the transactions and Ngwenya had his own lawyer.

Banchetti was also a co-director with Titi, before he resigned, in a company called Setefor, which subsequently acquired shares worth R5.2million from Tsiya in 2013.

Ngwenya alleges that these were part of his shares which had been diluted from the original Makana contract drawn up by Banchetti.

“Our legal adviser Zoe became the beneficiary of my shares that were hijacked from Columbia. All of this was achieved through a maze of fake agreements prepared by Zoe and fraudulently presented to me to sign without any discussion or advice from Zoe,” said Ngwenya.

But Banchetti said she was offered the shares after Ngwenya had waived his preemptive rights to acquire them. “I should further point out that there is nothing untoward in a commercial attorney being invited to participate in a client’s commercial ventures,” said Banchetti.

Titi said he was not willing to debate commercial agreements through the media and invited Ngwenya to approach the courts.

“We are determined to hold Mr Ngwenya to all the agreements he entered into and bound himself to. We again urge him to approach the courts to adjudicate on his baseless claims, rather than to engage in a campaign of harassment and the making of racial slurs, which is totally unacceptable,” said Titi.