Duped doctors quiz ‘manic’ con artist
Investors found their life savings had paid for his life of luxury
A GROUP of wealthy Cape Town doctors who believed they had lost their savings to a con man gave him a sleeping pill and had him admitted to a clinic.
They mined him for information about their missing R30million. But it was all for nothing: the money appears to have been splurged on cars, houses and a luxury lifestyle.
Shane Griffiths could face up to 15 years in jail if he is found guilty of swindling the doctors and businessmen by conning them into joining his private “investors club”.
The initial offer from Griffiths, a former stockbroker, looked like a no-brainer for the plastic surgeons, anaesthetists and other specialists. He would invest their savings through his private account to avoid brokerage fees.
Griffiths claimed to have been a top investment adviser at Momentum, prompting them to cash in their unit trust investments and divert retirement annuity contributions to him. Griffiths produced spreadsheets showing the growth in their investments.
But the spreadsheets were fabricated and the money has disappeared. Forensic investigations have said Griffiths invested “very little to no funds” but spent the money on his “lifestyle and living expenses”.
Last week, the Hawks pounced on the 52-year-old, who was sequestrated in 2015, at the Cape Town clinic where he now works as a nurse.
A Hawks spokesman said Griffiths allegedly ran the scam between 2004 and 2014.
His alleged victims were plastic
surgeons Roger Graham and husband and wife Conrad Pienaar and Clare Neser; ear, nose and throat surgeon Jacek Stulinski; anaesthetists Justin Collen, Christiaan Leerkamp and Spencer Burke; and businessmen Graeme Stevens, Gil Bauman, Richard Drinkrow and Mike Drinkrow.
According to court papers, the doctors became aware of Griffiths’ failing mental health in February 2015.
Collen took him to his Constantia home, and, realising Griffiths “was extremely manic”, asked Graham to help “babysit” him. In an affidavit submitted in the sequestration application, Graham said Collen persuaded Griffiths to take a sleeping pill, but the following day the former stockbroker’s behaviour had “worsened to the point of psychosis” and he was taken to see a psychiatrist.
Griffiths was admitted to the Kenilworth Clinic and Graham and Collen asked his doctor to update them on his progress while they tried to obtain information from him.
The investors demanded their money back from Griffiths, but he failed to return it, litigation began and he was sequestrated.
Griffiths appeared in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court on Friday last week on fraud, theft and money-laundering charges.
His lawyer, Morné Binedell, put up a fight during the bail application, dismissing the investors as “crybabies” who had brought criminal charges when their civil case yielded nothing. “The system is being abused by the complainants because of their frustration with the civil matter,” he told the court.
Gary Wallace, who was appointed a trustee of Griffiths’ estate, said the former stockbroker used the money to buy two homes worth more than
Concerned about their investments, they slipped him a sleeping pill
R4.4-million, vehicles, and to pay hefty life insurance premiums.
According to Wallace’s court papers in the sequestration, Griffiths “appeared to maintain an expensive lifestyle with many dependants, having been in his third marriage at the time of the application for his sequestration”.
René Blom, the investors’ lawyer, told the Sunday Times this week that the money might not be recovered.
“Some clients have had to come out of retirement and continue working,” she said.
Griffiths was released on R10 000 bail and the matter was postponed for further investigation.
Binedell, who said his client was taking medication for bipolar disorder, promised to give the Sunday Times Griffiths’ side of the story but failed to answer his phone or reply to messages.
Momentum said Griffiths invested some of the doctors’ funds on its platform. “These funds are intact and remain invested accordingly.”