Raiders of The Tomb (Part II)
Magical Disappearances
By 7Y8B7M, 3K3MDU & CB7MNV
I'm for truth no matter who tells it. I'm for justice no matter who it's for or against.
Malcolm X
Now it’s here, now it’s nowhere: following the money is never easy – and it’s often a
dangerous occupation. Especially when the guys you’re after are holding the keys to
the final vault. But as the X-Files professes ‘The Truth Is Out There’.
Sometime in 1989, shortly before his death, the work of administering the affairs of
the estate (No. 1635/1990) of the late Frans Johannes van Tonder was handed to
the executives of FNB Trust Services. The ailing man, having decided who would
manage his estate for his daughter’s benefit, was in daily contact with a range of
banking officials. Under the pressure of his imminent death, the man appears to
have done his best to put his financial affairs into some kind of order. Records
tracked by this team of journalists and information and data scientists, copies of
which are also in uSpiked’s possession, show that in the weeks leading to his
November demise, Van Tonder was in constant talks with various FirstRand
executives.
It’s strongly suspected that, with Van Tonder on his deathbed – attended at times by
FirstRand-linked staff – a scheme was already being hatched to fleece the massive
estate. The whole situation was ripe for it: a multitude of companies, deposits,
property and stock portfolios and bank accounts, both personal and business,
without any linking framework. A crooked liquidator’s delight. The bankers held his
Last Will & Testament and they knew he was dying.
But this report isn’t about the individual executives, but about the culpability of the
holding company, FirstRand Ltd that empowered the executives to run amok.
The Administration of Estate Act No. 66 of 1965 [INSERT: THE ACT ON BANKERS I]
is quite clear on procedures to be followed. The bankers followed the Act as far as
the requirement of the reporting of the death and delivering the will to the office of
the Master of the high court in Pretoria. As executors, they also wrote to the Master
requesting Letters of Executorship.
Soon after the appointment, the executors are expected to draw a detailed
inventory of assets and liabilities. They must also open a single bank account in the
name of the estate of the deceased. The authors of the legislation and its Regulations
and Rules must have envisioned that some assets and liabilities may only be
discovered during the often-lengthy liquidation and distribution processes.
Executors are thus allowed to adjust their statements of account as the work
progresses. However, the final Liquidation & Distribution statements of account
filed with the Master of the High Court, must be just that; final.
The bankers at FNB Trust Services had their scheme worked out to deceive the heir
of their dead clients. FNB Trust Services, in a sworn statement, say they never
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opened individual bank accounts for every Estate in their books, but instead heaped
all moneys from each dead client in a pool-like account in the name of FNB Trust
Services. An illegality that is clearly designed to aid the siphoning of any recoverable
at their pleasure behind the mourning relatives.
“The manner in which the bank accounts were conducted is that the first respondent
(FNB Trust Services) as the trust company held banking account with the second
respondent (FirstRand Ltd). The banking account would contain the funds of all of the
various trust clients of the first respondent in much the same way as an attorney’s
trust account would.”
This is extracted from Paragraph 21.23 of an affidavit sworn by Barbara Catharine
Botha, a legal compliance officer with FirstRand Ltd when Analize requested copies
of the bank account that the legislation required the executors to open for her
father’s estate. [INSERTION: FIRSTRAND POOLING ASSETS]
The works of executors named in a Will or the Estate Officers of deceased estates,
even if they are lawyers, are strictly governed by the Administration of Estate Act
that is regulated and supervised by the office of the Master of the high court. So for
bankers to claim privileges accorded to lawyers, smells rotten.
On the inventory, the legislation does not compromise on the rules. All assets and
liabilities must be inventorised. But in the late Van Tonder’s case, and we have since
discovered several other similar cases where the bankers deliberately and
selectively withheld certain assets.
The usage of the word ‘deliberately’ is well advised. The evidence in our possession
indicates that not only did the top executives at the bank’s head office know about
the ‘misplaced’ assets, but did everything in their executive powers to hide their
illegalities, not just from the families involved and the office of the Master, but also
from the Receiver of Revenue.
Following the money
As per the final inventory filed with the Master’s office in Pretoria on 15 July 1991,
HC Strauss, the FNB Trust Services’ assigned executor, signed off a total of nine bank
accounts that were previously held by the deceased in his personal capacity and his
various businesses. These were:
 4005372143 in the name of F J van Tonder
 9000515426 in the name of F J van Tonder
 347906409730 (Investment Acc FJ van Tonder
 790107090095121 (Gold Credit Card) in the name of FJ Van Tonder
 8002743043 in the name of Wema Konstruksie (Pty) Ltd
 4002913542 in the name of Wes Oranje (Pty) Ltd
 4002077817 in the name of Pegma Minerale (Pty) Ltd
 3002891107 in the name of Wema Groep (Pty) Ltd
 347907000267-01 (Investment Acc) in the name of Wema Beleggings (Pty)
Ltd
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The inventorised bank accounts were all held at another FirstRand Limited
subsidiary, First National Bank (FNB). And they appeared to have been well
selected: these were the accounts with the lowest balances.
Using comparative data processing and analysis, our computer application, after
feeding-in various traceable bank deposit details, managed to identify at least
twelve other FNB held bank accounts that were not declared by the executives.
These were:
 2008062897512 in the name of Wema Konstruksie (Pty) Ltd
 27430433972-01 (Cheque Acc.) in the name of FJ Van Tonder
 29162744715-01 (Cheque Acc.) in the name of FJ Van Tonder
 53721431511-01 (Cheque Acc.) in the name of FJ Van Tonder
 341904003559-01 (Investment Acc.) in the name of FJ Van Tonder
 28975123972-01 in the name of Wema Konstruksie (Pty) Ltd
 67590334073-01 in the name of Wema Bouvoorsieners (Pty) Ltd
 28911073972-01 in the name of Wema Groep (Pty) Ltd
 20778173972-01 in the name of Pegma Minerale (Pty) Ltd
 2002887894 in the name of Wema Beleggings (Pty) Ltd
 28878943972-02 in the name of Wema Beleggings (Pty) Ltd
 29135423972-01 in the name of Wes-Oranje (Pty) Ltd
The failure to declare the above bank accounts, we can now prove, were not due to
system errors or malfunctions, but indicated a well-organised bank-accountshijack-scheme known only to various top executives of the bank. These would have
been individuals with enough security clearance to bypass the bank’s internal
personnel management systems that would identify whoever accesses any account
at any given time.
Among the proofs in our possession are copies of print-outs provided from an FNB
branch in December 2013, showing that certain individuals within the bank deemed
it profitable to maintain that FJ Van Tonder’s status as ‘alive’ – after 24 years of his
passing-on – and still transacting businesses on these accounts. [INSERT: BANK ACC
HIJACK FIRSTRAND HQ].
The same individuals also found it appropriate to change Van Tonder’s physical
address from his home in George to FirstRand’s head office, care of a non-registered
business, Equity Management Services.
Walking into a local FNB branch in December 2013 with her father’s ID (INSERT:
VAN TONDER ID), Analize was shocked to find that her father was still listed in the
bank’s system as alive. Whoever authorized and effected the change of addresses
soon after his death, conveniently failed to update his status on the bank’s system.
They surely knew what they intended to achieve. What happened to the funds held
in those twelve bank accounts?
Analize’s initial inquiry centered on the activities within the estate of her late father.
She believed that would help her understand just why the bankers had hesitated to
provide her with the much-needed information for the IRS. But when she requested
the estate’s records, executives of FNB Trust Services refused to cooperate. She
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proceeded to the Pretoria Master’s office where she officially obtained copies of all
records as were filed by the bankers.
There were several unexplainable payouts recorded in the accounts. Her attention
was however briefly diverted to a 1991/92 Income Tax Return document No.
2297082642 [INSERT: ILLEGAL TAX RETURNS] prepared on behalf of the
testamentary FJ Van Tonder / Analize Trust by a ZC Havenga of Havenga Accounting
Services. The name seemed familiar to her.
Analize then retained the services of KPMG Services (Pty) Ltd to undertake due
diligence on all Estate Officers and Trustees who had ever handled the Estate and
the Trust. When the KPMG findings were delivered, her suspicions were confirmed;
ZC Havenga was Zonia Cecilia Havenga, wife of FNB Trust Services executive,
Hendrik Havenga, who was identified as Estate Officer No. 6. Havenga Accounting
Services was never constituted as a legal entity anywhere within the republic.
Also suspicious were numerous payments made to a company called Honolulu
Konstruksie cc. One such payment was made on 5 November 1993 for R124,272.43.
The invoice for this particular payments and all others claimed by the alleged
company, bore the VAT Vendor No. 4850111230. To the Master of the High Court,
these may have appeared as legitimate settlements of claims. In the analysis of this
report, they appear as nothing short of money laundering. [INSERT: HONOLULU
KONSTRUKSIE cc]
This team’s investigation quickly discovered that, prior to 1999, Honolulu
Konstruksie cc was a creation of accountants at Claassen Stone in Springbok – the
same firm FNB Trust Services used to run the affairs of both the Estate and the
Trust. SARS confirm that VAT No. 4850111230 was never assigned to any
corporation.
Also suspicious and clearly not provided for in the legislation was an application
made by the bankers for a Credit Card in the names of one of the late Van Tonder’s
companies. In the application, [INSERT: MasterCard Application] Bankers Ian
Charles Allison and Marilyn Kay Lamprecht sought and were issued with a Master
Card Credit Card No. 522100103 with a monthly credit limit of R30,000 in the
names of Pegma Minerale (Pty) Ltd.
If the application was legitimate, why didn’t they make it at their own bank? And
why aren’t there any records at the Master’s office reflecting the various
transactions undertaken with the Card? Not even the Credit Cards’ fees could be
found in the parallel investigations.
According to the Act, the executors or the estate officers could liquidate (sell)
various assets to settle any liabilities, but this must be explained to the Master’s of
the high court. But incurring credit card debts on behalf of an estate is a new one.
Faced with these anomalies and contravention of the Administration of Estate Act,
Analize requested from FirstRand Ltd copies of all bank statements for the FJ Van
Tonder Estate as per the legislation. The response from the bank that received the
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2012 BAI-Finacle Global Banking Innovation Awards was an emphatic no. They were
not willing to hand over records to the heir of their deceased client.
Sensing she was onto something big, Analize took off her gloves and launched a
David and Goliath legal battle. She held to her belief that what had been going on
behind the scenes would inevitably be revealed.
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