‘FSCA raid an intimidation tactic’
‘They are looking for information relating to corruption implicating certain politicians…’
DR IQBAL Survé has said he is taking on the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) after its raid on his companies yesterday. He described the move as the result of clandestine meetings between state regulatory bodies and powerful politicians aimed at intimidating him for political reasons.
The early morning raid took place in the offices of Sekunjalo Investment Holdings and African Equity Empowerment Investment (AEEI) in Cape Town, and information was retrieved from laptops and computer hard drives.
Dr Survé said Judge Pat Gamble of the Western Cape High Court issued a court order authorising the raid after another judge had rejected the FSCA’s request.
The FSCA said the search was part of its probe into allegations of market manipulation levelled against Dr Survé’s firm AYO Technology Solutions.
“We are going to court. We are aware that they approached two judges and the first judge was hesitant and not prepared to take part in this politics, hence they went to the second judge,” Dr Survé said.
Sekunjalo’s lawyer Charles Abrahams said they would approach the court to have the search warrant used to raid Dr Survé’s offices at the Silos Office Complex near the V&A Waterfront declared illegal.
“We have been instructed on behalf of Sekunjalo to proceed to have the warrant set aside, which will happen in due course,” Abrahams said.
Dr Survé described the raid as a “fishing expedition” and “an intimidation tactic” – part of an orchestrated campaign against him and his companies for political reasons. Management and staff said the FSCA, accompanied by police officers, pounced on the offices of Sekunjalo Holdings and AEEI without notice and tried to confiscate laptops and computer hard drives.
The FSCA team said they were probing claims of irregularly share trading levelled against AYO.
They proceeded to the desk of Dr Survé’s personal assistant, Maude Nyandoro, and demanded her laptop.
Without producing a copy of the court order, they began downloading information from the laptop but stopped halfway through when company lawyers arrived and demanded legal documents authorising the raid.
Dr Survé, who owns Independent Media SA, was not in the building when the FSCA team arrived before 9am.
Insisting that “we have no problem giving them information relating to AYO had they simply asked for it,” Dr Survé said the FSCA decided to raid his companies in its probe into share trading even though AYO was the official complainant in the matter.
“This is a desperate attempt to stop us from publishing the truth. Ironically, it is Sekunjalo that lodged a formal complaint with the FSCA against certain well-known hedge funds and asset managers that were trying to bring down AYO’s share price,” Dr Survé said, “instead of investigating that the FSCA is used to intimidate us into submission.”
Earlier this year, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) issued a Compliance Notice against the board of directors of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) to recoup the R4.3 billion investment it made into AYO Technology Solutions in 2017.
This move was declared unlawful by Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, Judge Cornelius van der Westhuizen.
Dr Survé added that the raid was part of a “concerted attempt by a cabal” to use state institutions and regulatory bodies such as the SA Revenue Service, FSCA, CIPC and even the FIC, “working in collusion with others”, to try to “find something to intimidate us”.
“They are frustrated that the Mpati commission could not find anything irregular and now they are using the state institutions to go on a fishing expedition to intimidate our companies.”
Dr Survé described the FSCA’s latest move as an underhanded tactic to get inside information on AYO’s legal strategy after the technology company made it clear it intended to sue the PIC for billions in damages. “They are looking for information our journalists have relating to corruption implicating certain politicians.
‘‘This is effectively an attack on media freedom, because of the sensitivity of the information in our possession.”
The FSCA when approached, said the raid was part of an investigation into allegations of prohibited trading practices (market manipulation), in possible contravention of Section 80 of the Financial Markets Act.
It said Judge Gamble granted the order for the search on Tuesday.