Josea hits back on moves to strip assets

NICO Josea does not plan to let go of his business and personal assets without a fight.Having spent the past month and a half locked up on pending charges that he allegedly executed a massive act of fraud and theft against the Social Security Commission and a business associate, the late Lazarus Kandara and his Avid Investment Corporation, Josea this week struck back at efforts to liquidate his asset management company, Namangol Investments, and sequestrate his personal estate.

Josea is using two affidavits filed with the High Court on his behalf on Monday to swat away accusations that he received and squandered close to N$15 million belonging to the SSC. In the process, he is challenging claims that his company should be liquidated and his personal estate sequestrated because they are unable to pay their debts.He maintains that Namangol Investments will still be able to repay N$20 million plus earnings on that amount – but only when an investment it made with N$20 million belonging to the SSC matures by the first week of March next year.In fact, charges Josea in the affidavits, the two court applications that the provisional liquidators of Avid launched in late July to have Namangol Investments liquidated and Josea himself sequestrated were not only premature but also “designed to have an emotive, damning and sensational effect” against himself.The applications were based on claims that they were unable to repay N$29,5 million of the SSC’s money that Namangol had received from Avid, Josea also denies a central plank of the liquidators’ claims – that he squandered half of the SSC’s N$30 million investment after mid-March, which was when he received close to N$15 million from South African financial trader Alan Rosenberg, who at the end of January had received N$20 million of the SSC’s money from Namangol to invest.”I deny that the aforesaid nearly N$15 000 000,00 received by myself was the Social Security Commission’s money,” Josea states.”No basis has to date been established for this unsubstantiated allegation by the Applicants (the provisional liquidators).In terms of Namangol’s agreement with Avid, this application is premature, as the investment only matures in the first week of March 2006, when same becomes due, owing and payable – same not being payable at present,” he declares.Josea relates in the statements that he informed Kandara towards the latter part of last year, when Kandara first asked Josea to introduce him to the financial traders that Namangol used in South Africa – this turned out to be Rosenberg and a business partner, Frik Blaauw – that the sort of financial trades that Namangol did were normally for one year and a day.In early January, Kandara again approached him and told him that he had N$30 million available that he wanted to invest through Namangol, Josea states.He claims that Kandara indicated to him that the money was Kandara’s, and never told him that this money had in truth emanated from the SSC.Kandara had already started borrowing money from him before Avid went on to transfer N$29,5 million to Namangol Investments, Josea claims.In total, from January to early June he went on to lend Kandara some N$3,276 million from the N$29,5 million that Avid had sent to Namangol Investments, of which Kandara’s estate still owes him N$76 000, Josea says in the affidavits.He states that after he had transferred N$20 million of the N$29,5 million to Rosenberg – something that he says Kandara instructed him to do – he launched an urgent court case against Rosenberg for the return of the money, since Rosenberg had failed to provide him with a written contract for the investment.That case had actually been sham litigation intended to enable Rosenberg to get his hands on money that was in a bank account that his bank had frozen while investigating claims that he was not registered as an investment banker, it was indicated when Rosenberg testified at a legal inquiry into Josea’s financial affairs in Cape Town earlier this week.But according to Josea’s affidavits, he and Rosenberg settled that case with an agreement that Rosenberg was to pay Namangol Investments N$15 million as damages for breach of contract.While negotiating that settlement, he adds, Rosenberg produced numerous documents “which ultimately satisfied me that the investment capital was safely engaged in the envisaged trade”.Not only that, but Rosenberg also undertook to let Namangol receive half of the investment that the N$20 million had joined, says Josea.When that investment is set to pay out in the first week of March next year, Namangol Investments stands to be paid US$17,9 million (N$114 million), Josea claims.The upshot of this, then, is that neither he nor Namangol investments could, in his view at least, be considered unable to pay their debts.That is firstly because the major debt, which is the money that is due to Avid and through it to the SSC, only has to be repaid by early March in Josea’s view, and secondly because at that very same time this massive inflow of money is expected into his company’s coffers.There is a problem, though, but it is of the SSC’s and Avid’s making, Josea also indicates.By having “usurped the contract between Namangol and Mr Rosenberg” – through starting to deal directly with Rosenberg, without using Namangol Investments as an intermediary like before – the SSC, Avid and Kandara had caused a total breakdown in communication between himself and Rosenberg.This had spurred Rosenberg into taking a chance to wriggle out of the settlement agreement, Josea states.”Under the usurped circumstances Namangol does not have control over the investment,” and as such Avid’s liquidators cannot claim that Namangol should be responsible for repaying the N$20 million, he argues in the statements.Josea also had an explanation ready for why the N$15 million that Rosenberg agreed to pay back to Namangol went into Josea’s personal bank account, rather than his company’s.That money will constitute a loan by Namangol to himself – and what’s more, this loan is not even payable at this stage, he maintains.He has not tried to act fraudulently or to squander money that belongs to the SSC, Josea states repeatedly.”If I had wanted to do the same I would certainly not have done so through my personal bank account at Bank Windhoek where I know a paper trace exists, but would have done so through other untraceable means,” he comments.He repeatedly also makes another statement: that the allegations against him are “unsubstantiated”, “speculative”, “emotive” and “vexatious”.Whether the High Court will agree with this assessment remains to be seen.On Monday, the court extended the provisional orders liquidating Namangol Investments and sequestrating Josea’s estate to October 13.In the process, he is challenging claims that his company should be liquidated and his personal estate sequestrated because they are unable to pay their debts.He maintains that Namangol Investments will still be able to repay N$20 million plus earnings on that amount – but only when an investment it made with N$20 million belonging to the SSC matures by the first week of March next year.In fact, charges Josea in the affidavits, the two court applications that the provisional liquidators of Avid launched in late July to have Namangol Investments liquidated and Josea himself sequestrated were not only premature but also “designed to have an emotive, damning and sensational effect” against himself. The applications were based on claims that they were unable to repay N$29,5 million of the SSC’s money that Namangol had received from Avid, Josea also denies a central plank of the liquidators’ claims – that he squandered half of the SSC’s N$30 million investment after mid-March, which was when he received close to N$15 million from South African financial trader Alan Rosenberg, who at the end of January had received N$20 million of the SSC’s money from Namangol to invest.”I deny that the aforesaid nearly N$15 000 000,00 received by myself was the Social Security Commission’s money,” Josea states.”No basis has to date been established for this unsubstantiated allegation by the Applicants (the provisional liquidators).In terms of Namangol’s agreement with Avid, this application is premature, as the investment only matures in the first week of March 2006, when same becomes due, owing and payable – same not being payable at present,” he declares.Josea relates in the statements that he informed Kandara towards the latter part of last year, when Kandara first asked Josea to introduce him to the financial traders that Namangol used in South Africa – this turned out to be Rosenberg and a business partner, Frik Blaauw – that the sort of financial trades that Namangol did were normally for one year and a day.In early January, Kandara again approached him and told him that he had N$30 million available that he wanted to invest through Namangol, Josea states.He claims that Kandara indicated to him that the money was Kandara’s, and never told him that this money had in truth emanated from the SSC.Kandara had already started borrowing money from him before Avid went on to transfer N$29,5 million to Namangol Investments, Josea claims.In total, from January to early June he went on to lend Kandara some N$3,276 million from the N$29,5 million that Avid had sent to Namangol Investments, of which Kandara’s estate still owes him N$76 000, Josea says in the affidavits.He states that after he had transferred N$20 million of the N$29,5 million to Rosenberg – something that he says Kandara instructed him to do – he launched an urgent court case against Rosenberg for the return of the money, since Rosenberg had failed to provide him with a written contract for the investment.That case had actually been sham litigation intended to enable Rosenberg to get his hands on money that was in a bank account that his bank had frozen while investigating claims that he was not registered as an investment banker, it was indicated when Rosenberg testified at a legal inquiry into Josea’s financial affairs in Cape Town earlier this week.But according to Josea’s affidavits, he and Rosenberg settled that case with an agreement that Rosenberg was to pay Namangol Investments N$15 million as damages for breach of contract.While negotiating that settlement, he adds, Rosenberg produced numerous documents “which ultimately satisfied me that the investment capital was safely engaged in the envisaged trade”.Not only that, but Rosenberg also undertook to let Namangol receive half of the investment that the N$20 million had joined, says Josea.When that investment is set to pay out in the first week of March next year, Namangol Investments stands to be paid US$17,9 million (N$114 million), Josea claims.The upshot of this, then, is that neither he nor Namangol investments could, in his view at least, be considered unable to pay their debts.That is firstly because the major debt, which is the money that is due to Avid and through it to the SSC, only has to be repaid by early March in Josea’s view, and secondly because at that very same time this massive inflow of money is expected into his company’s coffers.There is a problem, though, but it is of the SSC’s and Avid’s making, Josea also indicates.By having “usurped the contract between Namangol and Mr Rosenberg” – through starting to deal directly with Rosenberg, without using Namangol Investments as an intermediary like before – the SSC, Avid and Kandara had caused a total breakdown in communication between himself and Rosenberg.This had spurred Rosenberg into taking a chance to wriggle out of the settlement agreement, Josea states.”Under the usurped circumstances Namangol does not have control over the investment,” and as such Avid’s liquidators cannot claim that Namangol should be responsible for repaying the N$20 million, he argues in the statements.Josea also had an explanation ready for why the N$15 million that Rosenberg agreed to pay back to Namangol went into Josea’s personal bank account, rather than his company’s.That money will constitute a loan by Namangol to himself – and what’s more, this loan is not even payable at this stage, he maintains.He has not tried to act fraudulently or to squander money that belongs to the SSC, Josea states repeatedly.”If I had wanted to do the same I would certainly not have done so through my personal bank account at Bank Windhoek where I know a paper trace exists, but would have done so through other untraceable means,” he comments.He repeatedly also makes another statement: that the allegations against him are “unsubstantiated”, “speculative”, “emotive” and “vexatious”.Whether the High Court will agree with this assessment remains to be seen.On Monday, the court extended the provisional orders liquidating Namangol Investments and sequestrating Josea’s estate to October 13.