The company that Johannesburg liquidator Bouwer van Niekerk was working on when he was assassinated in a brazen hit at his office last September used investors’ money to purchase property, vehicles and other luxury assets and services, a forensic report has found.
Very little of the money was returned to investors, according to an investigation by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
A liquidator’s report finalised this week found that the NTC Global Trade Fund operated as an illegal bank, with hundreds of millions of rands diverted to entities controlled by company head Edwin Thabo Letopa and his partners, Marius Venter and Sakhile Matsimela.
The report, titled “Forensic Investigation – Cashflow Analysis NTC Global Trade Fund (Pty) Ltd”, covers the period from December 9 2022 to December 12 2023 and was commissioned by NTC’s liquidators.
The investigation focuses on a detailed cash-flow analysis of NTC. The business is alleged to have swindled investors out of millions of rands through a Ponzi or pyramid-type scheme, misappropriating funds purportedly earmarked for crypto arbitrage trading.
Crypto arbitrage is generally described as a low-risk trading strategy in which a cryptocurrency is bought on one exchange at a lower price and immediately sold on another at a higher price, exploiting price discrepancies and market inefficiencies for profit.
However, PwC stressed the limits of its mandate, stating: “We do not comment on the legal merits of any aspect of this analysis, nor have we legally interpreted any document or information. We do not express any legal opinion in this document.”
The forensic report examines the bank accounts and directorships of the three NTC owners, as well as the connected entity Arbitrawallet. It details how investor funds were not channelled into crypto trading platforms but were instead allegedly diverted through a network of accounts and used to purchase property, vehicles and other luxury assets and services.
NTC was established in 2022 by Letopa and Venter. According to one investor who spoke to the Sunday Times this week on condition of anonymity, company documents show NTC was registered as a sales and trading business but were “very vague and non-specific” because they did not declare what it was trading or selling.
“Some of [us] have gone to court to force NTC’s hand,” the investor said, explaining how 25 investors eventually succeeded — after two failed attempts — in having the trading and investment platform placed into liquidation.
“Nobody can say exactly how many investors were involved. The number being thrown about is about R490m, and between 1,300 and 1,500 investors countrywide.”
The Pretoria high court granted the liquidation application last September, just days after the hit on Van Niekerk, who was acting for the investors and attempting to secure asset and fund preservation orders.
Van Niekerk was shot in his firm’s boardroom in Saxonwold by two men who had arranged a meeting under the pretext of being prospective clients. The gunmen and two accomplices fled in a vehicle.
No arrests have been made. Police spokesperson Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said this week that the case remained under investigation.
NTC is linked to Arbitrawallet through disclosures on its website and shared directorships. The entities were purportedly operated by Letopa, Venter and Matsimela.
The PwC report states that none of the investors’ funds were paid into recognised trading platforms. Instead, the money was routed through multiple accounts, with substantial amounts spent on property, vehicles and luxury expenses allegedly linked to NTC’s directors.
One table in the report, labelled “Summary of second-level cash-flow analysis”, details 42 transactions totalling R126.9m. Among them are:
- R8.5m paid to a law firm;
- R342,000 for private jet flights;
- two payments by Letopa for gold from the Scoin Shop in Eastgate, one for R891,300 and another for R550,000; and
- R790,000 paid by Venter to the VIP Travel Company.
Gavin Wilschutt-Prins, speaking on behalf of Letopa and NTC, said: “The report we have received is more audit opinion from the lawyers. Our legal team has received [it] and we have a forensic legal report as well, which we will share in the court papers. The current report is incomplete and incorrect, which we will deal with in the current legal proceedings.”
Last year, Letopa told the Sunday Times there had been “no bad blood” between him and Van Niekerk and insisted he had nothing to do with the assassination.
Henk Strydom, the lawyer representing the investors, did not respond to requests for comment.
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