Dodgy dagga businessman leaves European investors high and dry
Scores swindled out of about R70m in elaborate scam
A medical cannabis entrepreneur who fled with more than R70-million of investors’ funds, allegedly misled scores of people to part with their cash by taking them on tours to top growing facilities and even hosted them at a luxury Sun City hotel as part of his alleged plot to scam them.
Sunday World has seen information to the effect that Willem van der Merwe and his South African business associates invited international investors from Europe last year and took them to five world class medical cannabis-growing facilities in Johannesburg and North West province.
Van der Merwe allegedly claimed the facilities were owned by his business partners for medical cannabis meant for the export market.
Van der Merwe is currently facing fraud accusations for allegedly making off with 3.5-million euros that was paid to his company Dacha Corporation by unsuspecting investors.
Investors’ representatives who lost large sums of money in the charade said by the time they figured out they had been misled by Van der Merwe and his associates, about R70-million had been transferred to the businessman’s South African bank account.
Sunday World has learnt that Battisoft is one of the companies that were duped in the scam and that a criminal case has been opened against Van der |Merwe in Cape Town.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media, three of the representatives who went on the “impressive tour” said Van der Merwe’s alleged claims were believable.
“We were met at the airport and from there our trip was quite an impressive one. The facilities we were taken to were truly world class. We met top officials at those facilities including CEOS and a master grower who showed us around and explained their operations,” said a representative.
“Our whole visit was top-notch because [Van der Merwe] then took the entire delegation to Sun City where he paid for hotel accommodation, meals and drinks. He truly went all out,” the representative said.
This was corroborated by the other representatives on the same tour.
It was agreed the money would be invested in the cultivation, harvesting, packaging, and exporting of medical cannabis and the companies would then split the profits.
Senior officials at two of the growing facilities confirmed a delegation of potential investors was brought to their operation by Dacha Corporation and Van der Merwe, but vehemently denied any association with him.
Chad Esch, the master grower at Safricanna, a large medical cannabis facility in Centurion, Pretoria, confirmed that Van der Merwe had been present during the investor tour.
CEO of Druids Garden, Cian Mcclelland, said that his company was also visited by Dacha Corporation and international investors, but that at no stage was he ever in a growing partnership with the company.
Druids Garden was awarded a research permit to develop cannabis medicines for the local market in 2019. Its holding company, Druids Holdings was awarded a medical cannabis licence from the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority in 2021.
“We have no dealings whatsoever with Dacha. The only thing we received from Dacha was an unsigned document stating their interest in purchasing our product. We have not heard from them since,” said Mcclelland.
In a recorded interview with Van der Merwe earlier this year, the Swiss-based businessman said he had handed over all the funds that were deposited to his company to German authorities because he “could not verify” the origins of the funds. Van der Merwe declined to give any details related to his claims.