Perlemoen accused reveals sources of R800 000
JULIAN Brown may be in trouble with the law, but the suspected perlemoen kingpin has better friends than most.
He revealed his connections in an affidavit when he said his friends were willing to fork out nearly R800 000 in bail money.
From his fiancee’s brother-in-law, to “business acquaintances” and the father of his former girlfriend, members of the group apparently each contributed towards the 30-yearold’s bail last year.
And Brown is now fighting tooth and nail to prevent the R800 000 from being forfeited to the state.
The Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) obtained a preservation order from the Port Elizabeth High Court on November 22, claiming Brown could not have generated the money through his company, J&B Construction.
They believe the money is the proceeds of unlawful activities.
If the order is confirmed, Brown, or his friends, will have to kiss the R800 000 goodbye – and he could find himself back behind bars in no time, forced to reapply for bail.
Brown, who has moved to Jeffreys Bay, is the alleged head of a multimillion-rand perlemoen syndicate and faces charges which include racketeering.
After being granted bail by the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on July 14 – the highest amount in Port Elizabeth to date – it took him less than 48 hours to get the cash.
Now, in papers before the high court, he claims only R5 000 of that money came from his own pocket.
“My fiancee, Tania Weitz, used R5 000 from our savings and borrowed the remainder of the bail money from friends and business acquaintances,” Brown said.
He detailed how the money was transported to Standard Bank in Pickering Street on July 16 in two plastic bags – one black and one blue – by Weitz and two attorneys.
He said attorneys Danie Gouws and Malan de Beer had accompanied Weitz for security reasons.
Brown said he had borrowed the money on the promise that he would pay it back once the bail money was returned to him, either on conviction or his acquittal.
He said he had borrowed R300 000 from self-employed businessman Leslie Reynard.
“I was previously romantically involved with his daughter and became a friend of the family,” Brown said.
Conray Lingard, a truck driver from Sydenham and Weitz’s brother-in-law, was out of the country at the time, but instructed his mother to take R20 000 from his safe and give it to Weitz.
In addition, Brown borrowed R160 000 from electrician Tommy Lamont, R175 000 from Bluewater Bay financial director Shaun Schoeman, and R140 000 from multiple business owner Jonathan Fowke.
Responding to the AFU’s claim that Gouws had failed to inform the Financial Intelligence Centre of the R800 000, Brown said the money had never been deposited into Gouws’s trust account and therefore he did not have a legal duty to report it.
In addition, Brown said De Beer was only a temporary custodian of the money.
Brown is due back in court for his criminal matter on January 17.