Hard-up swindler in ‘golden’ oil scam has to pay R55m to firm
● Cape Town businessman Juan Lerena was known as Mr Crispa because of his role in selling hundreds of millions of rands’ worth of Crispa Gold, one of SA’s top cooking oils.
But a high court judge has found the would-be oil baron was the quintessential slippery character.
Lerena, of Camps Bay, faces a bill of about R55m after his former employer, Sime Darby Hudson & Knight — a manufacturer and seller of fat and oil products — successfully sued him in the high court in Cape Town for diverting sales to his own companies in a fouryear swindle.
According to the judgment, Lerena — whose Facebook posts portray him as a man with a taste for luxury — pocketed R9m in secret profits, which he has to repay.
But after finding that he had breached his employment contract, judge Lee Bozalek also ordered him to repay the R33m, with interest, he cost the company in lost sales.
Makro is one Sime Darby’s main customers for “the golden standard in frying oil”, and the price it paid for Crispa Gold was used as a benchmark. Sime Darby said the “Makro rule” meant no customer should get a better price because Makro “was treated with kid gloves”.
It said Lerena abused his position by diverting sales opportunities to his companies, Fast Track Marketing and FDC Distributors, by buying Crispa Gold at a cut price and selling it to Sime Darby customers.
The judgment said: “Notwithstanding the existence of the Makro price benchmark, during his period of employment [Lerena] allowed two customers, Saania Distributors and Seafood Wholesale (Botswana), to buy Crispa Gold at prices markedly and consistently lower than the Makro price … to further his secret profit-making activities.”
Sime Darby called eight witnesses to bolster its case, including forensic investigator Chris Schulz, who analysed the bank statements of Lerena’s companies and found that more than R36m from Crispa Gold sales had flowed into their accounts.
Despite the huge profits he made, Lerena represented himself in court.
He was sacked in 2012 after an inquiry. Questioned about lack of documentation for his businesses, Lerena said “he fell upon hard times after his dismissal and lived in his car for a month, so the preservation of documents was not [a] high priority”.
The court heard that Lerena threatened to report his employer to the authorities after his dismissal. This included lodging a complaint with the Competition Commission.
This week, Lerena dismissed the ruling as unreasonable and said he would appeal. He had been approached by two law firms who wanted to represent him for free.
Sime Darby said it “respects and abides by the judgment … The company has no further comments to respond to Mr Lerena’s statement about the case at this stage.”