Bobroffs await ruling
FUGITIVES CONTINUE TO DENY OWING MONIES
Former personal injury attorneys Ronald and Darren Bobroff await judgment as to whether their personal estates should be finally sequestrated. The case was argued in the Johannesburg High Court before Judge Edwin Molahlehi.
The Bobroffs were provisionally sequestrated in March 2017 with Acting Judge Etienne Theron noting “assets may be unearthed that will benefit creditors”.
The Bobroffs strenuously denied they or Ronald Bobroff & Partners Incorporated (RBP) owed R3 million to Christine Maree, a 79-year-old widow (the victim of medical negligence) and Yasmin Motara, a 32-year-old teacher (the innocent party in a car accident). Maree and Motara are applicants in the sequestration application.
In March 2017, they fled for Australia as fugitives and have continued to litigate against SA creditors. Ronald and Darren, in opposing their provisional sequestration, stated they each had some R5 000 in personal creditors, while Darren’s Victory Park home was bonded to Nedbank.
When the creditor requisitions arrived after the provisional sequestration order was granted, a different picture emerged:
RBP landlord 44 Bolton Road CC claimed R435 005. A Moneyweb investigation revealed the members of the close corporation, were Ronald Bobroff’s children: Darren, Cindi Jaches and Lisa Meyerthal. In 2013, Darren resigned and appointed his wife Lisa as a member (part owner). The latter Lisa resigned in 2016 after fleeing for Australia. Company records reflect the current members (de facto owners) are Jaches and Meyerthal.
Darren’s mother Elaine put in a claim against Darren for R1 million for “monies lent and advanced”. After Ronald and Darren fled for Australia, Elaine was arrested and arraigned in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court where she sought bail. She testified that apart from owning the family home, she had a modest investment portfolio and dividends that Ronald had donated to her and that she’d been a housewife for some 25 years with no other income. Her R1 million claim is at odds with this.
R18 million was claimed from the estates of Ronald and Darren by Rugger Investments. Rugger was formed in 2016; its sole director and shareholder since September 26 2016 is Jaches. The money was apparently lent after the provisional sequestration proceedings started. Since Ronald and Darren were outside SA, this means the SA Reserve Bank would have to have given permission for the loan. Moneyweb established that Jaches has for years been employed for a modest salary by Jewish welfare organisation Chevrah Kadisha and doesn’t have the finances or business acumen to set up a financing business.
Attorney Anthony Millar, acting for Maree and Motara, had filed papers in court in support of the final sequestration order which pointed out that the High Court in Pretoria had in July 2017 obtained a preservation order, seizing R102 million held in Ronald and Darren Bobroff’s names by the Bank Mizrahi Tefahot in Israel.
The Bobroffs opposed the evidence, alleging that it was hearsay.
An affidavit by Ronald Bobroff dated March 1, 2018 was handed in, making the following startling admissions:
“Darren and I do not deny that we are the owners of the majority of funds (credit balances in two accounts in Israel) – a minor amount in the region of R1 million is held for the benefit of a family member.”
“The existence and the extent of the funds were never disclosed by Darren and me in any other affidavit previously deposed to by us in these proceedings for the following reasons: (A). We were advised by our attorney … that we were under no obligation to do so for the reason that such information was not for the consumption of Maree and Motara and more specifically their attorney [Millar] (being armed with no less than 11 other unlawfully procured judgments). (B). In the event that we had detailed same we were in no doubt that Millar would have taken steps to have unlawfully obtained judgments recognised by a court in Israel.”
Judge Molahlehi will give judgment on March 23.
Millar denies any wrongdoing: “We will continue to pursue all lawful means to obtain payment for our clients.”