Josea bankruptcy tussle dragged out until May

THE High Court tussle over the alleged bankruptcy of investment handler Nico Josea is set to drag on over another three days in May.

Three days of court proceedings late last week and on Monday proved not to be enough to hear all the legal arguments in the cases in which Josea is fighting moves to declare himself and his asset management company, Namangol Investments, bankrupt. The fight over his financial future is now scheduled to continue before Judge President Petrus Damaseb on May 18, 19 and 22 – but by then, opposing lawyers Andrew Corbett and Jaco van Rooyen are set to be kept to time limits in which they will have to set out their arguments with greater speed and brevity than up to now.By the time the court postponed the cases on Monday afternoon, Johannesburg counsel Van Rooyen, who is Josea’s lawyer, was about to start reading once again from his set of written arguments that had been filed with the court.Judge President Damaseb did not hide his frustration, telling Van Rooyen that he was perfectly capable of reading through the documentation that had been filed with the court as part of the cases before him.At that point, Van Rooyen had been trawling though his written heads of argument and parts of affidavits filed with the court point by point since Friday already – and still he appeared to be nowhere close to wrapping up his arguments, with most of his address to the court until then having been taken up by arguments on more technical legal points and the reasons why he was saying parts of affidavits before the court have to be thrown out by the court.Josea is also facing a charge of fraud over his involvement in a deal in which the Social Security Commission invested N$30 million with a now-liquidated asset management company, Avid Investment Corporation, in January last year.After it had received the N$30 million from the SSC, Avid transferred N$29,5 million to Josea’s Namangol Investments, which in turn transferred N$20 million to a purported South African financial broker, Alan Rosenberg, supposedly to be invested.By mid-March last year, Rosenberg had paid back N$15 million to Josea, who invested and spent and lent this money to other people, but did not return it to Avid.Josea is claiming that his deal with Rosenberg was that this N$15 million was his to spend, and that Avid’s investment money would be due to be returned by the first week of March this year only, when Namangol Investments was set to receive investment proceeds of some US$17,9 million (about N$109 million at the current exchange rate) from Rosenberg.The problem was that the SSC’s agreement with Avid was for a four-month investment only.The deadline that Josea has been touting has now also passed – and still there is no sign of the money.The fight over his financial future is now scheduled to continue before Judge President Petrus Damaseb on May 18, 19 and 22 – but by then, opposing lawyers Andrew Corbett and Jaco van Rooyen are set to be kept to time limits in which they will have to set out their arguments with greater speed and brevity than up to now.By the time the court postponed the cases on Monday afternoon, Johannesburg counsel Van Rooyen, who is Josea’s lawyer, was about to start reading once again from his set of written arguments that had been filed with the court.Judge President Damaseb did not hide his frustration, telling Van Rooyen that he was perfectly capable of reading through the documentation that had been filed with the court as part of the cases before him.At that point, Van Rooyen had been trawling though his written heads of argument and parts of affidavits filed with the court point by point since Friday already – and still he appeared to be nowhere close to wrapping up his arguments, with most of his address to the court until then having been taken up by arguments on more technical legal points and the reasons why he was saying parts of affidavits before the court have to be thrown out by the court.Josea is also facing a charge of fraud over his involvement in a deal in which the Social Security Commission invested N$30 million with a now-liquidated asset management company, Avid Investment Corporation, in January last year.After it had received the N$30 million from the SSC, Avid transferred N$29,5 million to Josea’s Namangol Investments, which in turn transferred N$20 million to a purported South African financial broker, Alan Rosenberg, supposedly to be invested.By mid-March last year, Rosenberg had paid back N$15 million to Josea, who invested and spent and lent this money to other people, but did not return it to Avid.Josea is claiming that his deal with Rosenberg was that this N$15 million was his to spend, and that Avid’s investment money would be due to be returned by the first week of March this year only, when Namangol Investments was set to receive investment proceeds of some US$17,9 million (about N$109 million at the current exchange rate) from Rosenberg.The problem was that the SSC’s agreement with Avid was for a four-month investment only.The deadline that Josea has been touting has now also passed – and still there is no sign of the money.