Commission to quiz auction boss

26 February 2012 - 03:56 By BOBBY JORDAN
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AUCTION Alliance CEO Rael Levitt has been ordered to appear before investigators of the National Consumer Commission.

Commissioner Mamodupi Mohlala served the auction company with a summons under the Consumer Protection Act on Thursday.

Levitt will be questioned by an investigation team including industry experts and a representative of the National Prosecuting Authority on March 5.

Auction Alliance has been ordered to supply the commission with several potentially incriminating documents relating to the December 2011 auction of the Quoin Rock wine estate to businesswoman Wendy Appelbaum. She lodged the complaint with the commission.

The documents include the bidder's record, the vendor's roll and all recordings of the bidding process related to Quoin Rock, which was knocked down to Appelbaum for R55-million.

The sale later fell through amid allegations of "ghost bidding" against Appelbaum.

The summons - seen by the Sunday Times - was sent to Auction Alliance legal manager Charl Pienaar.

Signed by Mohlala, it said: "The subject of the investigation is the conduct of the respondent [Levitt] during the auction held in Stellenbosch on December 10 2011."

Mohlala told the Sunday Times that the probe might be expanded to look at alleged malpractice in the entire auction industry.

"Since the Appelbaum matter, certain information has come forth with regard to [mal]practices in the industry. We don't want a situation where we are only looking at Auction Alliance, whereas it [malpractice] is industry-wide.

"This complaint by Appelbaum has opened our eyes to the fact that there seem to be a lot of practices within the auction industry that are not in line with the regulations, and this would require that we will need to pay closer attention and scrutinise those practices."

Mohlala said the commission could even insist on a new industry code of conduct.

After proclaiming his innocence earlier this week, Levitt declined media interviews and referred all queries to Auction Alliance chairman Sango Ntsaluba, who did not respond to questions.

The Sunday Times has established that, in addition to the Quoin Rock controversy, several high-profile auctions and liquidations - reported previously by this paper - are under scrutiny by the Department of Justice and South African Revenue Service.

Although tight-lipped, both confirmed they were paying close attention to recent allegations relating to auctions and liquidations.

Responding to questions about several suspect liquidations, justice spokesman Tlali Tlali said: "Your enquiry relates to some of the issues we are paying close attention to."

SARS spokesman Adrian Lackay said: "We are compelled by law not to talk about the affairs of taxpayers publicly."

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