Sharemax R200 000 claim hearing set for next month

Sharemax R200 000 claim hearing set for next month
April 13 2011 at 06:15pm
By roy cokayne

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A claim of R200 000 lodged with the fidelity fund of the Law Society of the Northern Provinces relating to the alleged illegal release of funds from the trust account of Sharemax Investments attorneys Weavind & Weavind is set to be heard next month.

Pierre Hough, the managing director of Chase International and a business strategist, lodged the claim in October on behalf of Johanna Bosman, one of his clients.

Jaco Fourie, a senior legal official in the disciplinary department at the law society, said yesterday he had received a response on Monday from Hough to the comments made by Weavind & Weavind on the claim.

He said the matter would now be placed before a committee of the law society to decide how to deal with it.

A date had not yet been arranged for the committee meeting. Hough also lodged a R200 000 claim with the Attorneys Insurance Indemnity Fund related to the same matter on behalf of another client, Toffie Risk.

But this claim was rejected on the grounds that the fund’s liability was excluded by section 47(1) (g) of the Attorneys Act and non-compliance with section 26 of the same act.

In terms of section 47(1) (g), the fund shall not be liable in respect of any loss suffered by any person as a result of theft of money which a practitioner has been instructed to invest on behalf of such persons.

Section 26 of the Attorneys Act relates to the purpose of the fund and, among other things, states the fund shall be applied for the purpose of reimbursing persons who may suffer pecuniary loss as a result of theft by a practising practitioner, candidate attorney or employee of any money or property “in the course of his practice”.

Both claims followed the halting of construction on the Zambezi Retail Park and The Villa projects in September last year when Sharemax funds dried up, which also coincided with investors in the syndications not receiving their monthly payment.

The registrar of banks subsequently appointed statutory managers to Sharemax to manage the repayment of funds to investors after an investigation found Sharemax’s funding model contravened the Banks Act. - Roy Cokayne