KZN family charged over alleged Ponzi scheme

A KZN businessman, his estranged wife, parents and brother have all been charged in connection with an alleged Ponzi scheme involving R28m.

Durban - Ballito businessman Prinasen Dhaver, his estranged wife, parents and brother have all been charged in connection with an alleged Ponzi scheme involving R28 million.

Dhaver, his parents, Dr Jay and Dhanalutchmee Dhaver, brother Deshan and estranged wife Selina appeared in the dock of the Commercial Crime Court after they handed themselves over to police on Tuesday.

Three men, Aaron Chetty, Hareshmann Baboolal and Rayvan Pillay, who used to work for Dhaver, have also been charged in connection with the case.

All the accused said, in their affidavits for bail, that they would plead not guilty to the charges.

Dhaver, who is out on R100 000 bail after he was charged in 2014 with contravening the Banks Act, had 1 000 new counts added to the charge sheet against him on Tuesday.

Prosecutor Wendy O’Brien said the State was not opposed to bail as the accused were not flight risks and had co-operated with the investigating officer.

According to the charge sheet, Dhaver, Chetty, Baboolal and Pillay have been charged with 553 counts of:

* Fraud

* Contravening the Banks Act

* Contravening the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act

All eight are charged with money laundering and for contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

The charge sheet alleges that Dhaver, with Chetty, Baboolal and Pillay, created various entities and trusts and solicited people to make investments and that these funds would be used in the trade of diesel and petroleum products by the company, Innovatech International Solutions.

But the funds were transferred between various bank accounts, entities and trusts and to Dhaver’s relatives.

Investors were offered a 2%-8% return on their investments monthly and Innovatech also invested R1 million of the funds in another company, Carmol Distributors, between December 2011 and June 2013.

In return Carmol paid Innovatech R5.5 million between October 2011 and March 2014.

Last year Carmol Distributors, which is under provisional liquidation, was investigated by inspectors, appointed by the South African Reserve Bank.

The investigation found that Carmol had been conducting business as a bank in contravention of the Banks Act and had taken money from investors.

The State also alleges that some of the investors’ funds were transferred to Dhaver’s parents, his wife, Selina, and his brother Deshan.

In their bail affidavits, Dhaver’s parents and brother said they would plead not guilty to the charges.

Their advocate, Paul Jorgensen, told the court that the family had been aware of the charges before being summoned by the police but had not “run away or interfered with witnesses”.

Dhanalutchmee said in her affidavit that the charges against her were ”absurd” because she had also invested in the business.

Selina Dhaver, who said she suffered ill health, said in her affidavit that she and Dhaver separated because of the stress of the criminal charges and she had since moved to Johannesburg.

Chetty, Baboolal, Pillay and Selina Dhaver were granted bail of R1 000 each and Dhaver’s parents were ordered to pay R5 000 bail.

All eight were warned to hand over their passports to the investigating officer.

The case was adjourned to May.

The Mercury