Ex-fidentia boss living in R8m mansion
Financially crippled Brown mum on who foots rent bill
FIDENTIA’S former head, J Arthur Brown, is living in a house worth nearly R8-million. He was served notice at the luxury Bishopscourt, Cape Town house – with a private tennis court – of an appeal last month by the National Prosecuting Authority against his R150 000 fine for fraud.
During a marathon trial – which after six years failed to prove he stole from widows and orphans and which left him financially crippled – Brown lived in three houses worth a combined R26.9-million. The University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) dropout and former instant lawn salesman insisted this week that his financial position was dire and that he effectively lived on charity. “I do not live in luxury from supposed ill-gotten gains,” he said.
Brown, who declined to elaborate on who paid his rent, insisted he survived on the “financial support of my close family, and individuals who believed in my plight”.
“The private lives of my family are not a subject for the media . . . Considering my reliance on others, my living expenses are very conservative,” he said.
Testifying in his defence earlier this year, he told the Cape Town High Court: “The in- vestors suffered and for that I am truly sorry . . . the terms widows and orphans still haunt me.” The good Samaritans who leased or subsidised the homes Brown lived in during the trial include:
ý British property developer Brett Jolly, who in 2007 claimed to have discovered the world’s biggest diamond; ý UK businessman Matthew Machin; and ý South African property developer Rhett Molyneux.
The 4 707m² four-bedroom Bishopscourt house is owned by Up Front Investments 171 (Pty) Ltd, which featured Machin and Molyneux as directors. Machin this week said the company was “hijacked” by a partner. Attempts to reach Molyneux for comment failed.
The house was nearly auctioned three months ago due to municipal debt. “A sale in execution was pending, but the debtor went into liquidation,” city mayoral committee member for finance Ian Neilson said.
In 2009 Jolly emerged as the person who rented a luxury home at the Atlantic Golf Estate in Melkbosstrand – and a Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG – to Brown and his partner, Annelizé van den Bergh. Jolly himself is now em- broiled in a legal battle with Molyneux in the Cape Town High Court over money. He claims Molyneux introduced him to Machin.
Brown moved into Machin’s R16-million Hout Bay home when details leaked about his stay at the golf estate.
Machin said there was “no financial arrangement in place” and he had “never touched a cent of money belonging either to Brown or his family, even though I have been accused of laundering money for him”.
Machin asked Brown to leave after their association led to his UK bank accounts being frozen for nine months.
Brown’s assets and the R11-million beachfront home he shared with his then-wife Susan were seized by the state in 2007.