Judge describes maverick King as 'a shameless liar'

Controversial businessman Dave King, now the chairman of JSE-listed MicroMega, is a "glib and shameless liar" whose evidence should not be trusted, unless "it is supported by documents or other objective evidence".

These are the words contained in a Tax Court judgment that provides a detailed insight into the workings of the Scottish-born King and his complex empire.

The judgment was handed down in October 2010, but only became a public document two weeks ago when it was filed in the North Gauteng High Court as part of a separate case.

King, one of seven children, was born in 1955. His father was a policeman and the family was not well off - but that didn't stop him from telling SARS that his mother, Agnes, was extremely wealthy and the originator of his wealth.

King moved to SA more than 30 years ago, and has built up an impressive network of contacts and assets here and in Scotland.

His troubles with SARS started in 2000, when a tax official wondered how King, with a declared income of only R60000 a year, could afford to pay R1.76-million for an Irma Stern painting.

King told a special inquiry, of which the transcripts were submitted to court, that he had lost everything by 1995, and only acted on his "extremely wealthy" mother's behalf to sell shares in Specialised Outsourcing, a JSE-listed company. King, who founded the company, earned profits of more than R1.3-billion through his share sales.

He said that he merely represented Ben Nevis, one of his web of offshore entities which held the Specialised Outsourcing shares in SA.

King testified that his mother held the controlling interest in Ben Nevis through her offshore tax structures, of which he had "little knowledge". Despite the huge profits King made through the sale of shares, he testified that "he cost his mother a lot of money by selling her Specialised Outsourcing shares too cheaply".

The Tax Court found in favour of SARS, leaving Ben Nevis with a bill of at least R2.3-billion for taxes, penalties and interest.

In the court judgment, Judge Brian Southwood described King thus: "He is intelligent and articulate and appears to be well versed in the intricacies of the financial world and the purchasing and selling of shares on the JSE.

''Notwithstanding these advantages, he made a very poor impression as a witness. He is extremely arrogant and obviously thinks that whatever he says is so. (.)

''He has no respect for the truth and does not hesitate to lie or at least misrepresent the facts if he thinks it will be to his advantage."

From the court submissions it is obvious that King has an excellent knowledge of the workings of offshore trust structures and financial markets; that he deliberately left the trustees of the offshore entities in the dark about what he was doing with the assets they supposedly controlled; and that he deliberately kept his local legal team, employed in his battle with SARS, in the dark to ensure they are "not compromised by any knowledge of the international structures".

After a meeting between King and a Ben Nevis trustee, King was told that trustees needed to know what he was doing with the Ben Nevis assets. However, the mere threat that King might move his business elsewhere prevented trustees from taking a tough stance against him.

King had no qualms moving money from one bank due to his "extreme unhappiness" over charges of £250000 per year.