Kopano law firm hits back at FSB accusations

KOPANO Employee Benefits’ (KEB) back-office systems were such a shambles that money that did not reach members of the Bosele National Provident Fund had to be kept in a lawyer’s trust fund until it could be released to a new administrator.

This is according to RTK Attorney co-founder Charline “Charlie” Kirk, who, through her lawyer Ross Kudo, was responding to Sunday Times reports. A Financial Services Board (FSB) probe found that RTK had received a R21.87million payment irregularly from KEB — part of Cosatu’s investment arm, which was found to have stolen the retirement savings of Bosele’s 40 000 beneficiaries. The report has been handed to the authorities for prosecution.

On Monday, trade union federation Cosatu said it would discuss the FSB’s report at its central executive committee meeting this week. But officials at its media briefing on Thursday were silent on the issue.

Kirk said: “KEB’s back office did not have facilities to make payment by way of cheques to Bosele’s beneficiaries... details of the beneficiaries were unreliable and incomplete.”

This resulted in large volumes of cheques not being collected and coming back unpaid.

These amounts had to be returned to the administrator three years ago, but as the relationship between KEB and its back office soured, the funds had to be placed in a trust account, ready to transfer to the fund’s new administrator.

Alexander Forbes was reappointed as administrator in 2010, and Kirk said it received the R21.87-million as well as interest. A spokesman for Alexander Forbes confirmed it had received the cash in Bosele’s account. “The documentation relating to this lawful process was fully disclosed and made available to the FSB,” said Kirk.

Stacey Davidson, former operations manager at KEB, said she was contracted for one month to manage Bosele’s funds.

This raised questions about a conflict of interest, as her brother Bevan was employed in the call centre of Datalab, which the FSB found had irregularly received R26-million of Bosele’s cash. Davidson said Bevan was only contracted for a year to set up the call centre.