Shareholders misled Resilient inquiry

New evidence shows that former auditor-general Shauket Fakie was ‘lied to’.

New evidence shows that former auditor-general Shauket Fakie was misled by individuals he sought representations from when conducting the independent review into allegations of share price manipulation and irregular trading in the Resilient stable.

These included Resilient, Fortress, Nepi-Rockcastle and Greenbay.

Moneyweb came across Hendrik Oberholzer, the sole director and shareholder of four “K” companies that exclusively traded in the shares of the Resilient stable and which owned over R1 billion worth of stock at end January.

Oberholzer gave us shareholder registers for the four companies – which confirmed that he’d been both the sole director and shareholder of the companies since December 2, 2014.

But while communicating his review findings, Fakie initially contradicted Oberholzer, claiming that Roque Hafner, a one-time business associate of Resilient founder Des de Beer, was the owner of the “K” companies. Fakie later corrected his statement, confirming that Oberholzer was the sole shareholder, but that Hafner had lent Oberholzer the money to buy the shares.

The 2016 audited financial statements for Sentola Limited – a company incorporated in Cyprus and controlled by Hafner’s family trusts – show Hafner is the majority shareholder of all four “K” companies. But he’s not the only shareholder: it shows that Sentola is only a 74% shareholder.

This directly contradicts what Oberholzer told Moneyweb, and Fakie. In addition to the shareholder registers he provided, on April 13 he stated: “I did not tell Fakie that Roque Hafner’s family trust was the ultimate beneficial owners of the “K” companies, and in fact you were aware that I am the sole shareholder.”

But responding to Moneyweb’s questions, following the evidence he was given this week, he stated: “The position is as follows: Sentola owned 74% of the shares up to the end of 2016, whereafter it was taken over by me, so I have correctly confirmed that I am currently the sole shareholder. The error lies in the share register sent to you, which was only drawn up after your request. No dividends or loans were ever paid/ received from the ‘K’ companies to/from Sentola.”

Oberholzer declined to say who owns the other 26% of the shares in each of the four companies.

Fakie confirmed this wasn’t what he’d been told. “We have not looked at the audited financial statements of Sentola. We were told by Hafner and Oberholzer that Oberholzer is the sole director.”

These developments call the independent review’s integrity into question. What else hasn’t been substantiated or checked?