Lean Christmas for Goqo investors

Frustrated investors, who ploughed millions into an alleged Ponzi scheme run by Goodman Goqo, fear they are heading for a bleak festive season as they wait for their investments to be returned to them.

Goqo, 26, was arrested in January this year and is charged with more than 4 000 counts of fraud and one of contravening the Banks Act for illegally operating a bank.

Goqo was the director of Ingede Mineral Holdings, a private company that undertook to manage investments.

He allegedly told investors their money would be invested on the stock market and promised a return of 30 percent over a six-month period, and that their capital was guaranteed.

However, the company allegedly operated as a bank, accepting deposits when it did not have the authority to do so, and did not invest the money on the stock market. Instead, the money was transferred from Ingede Mineral Holdings’ bank account to Goqo’s personal account. The Reserve Bank shut down the company last year and appointed attorney Johan Kruger to take control of Ingede and recover the investors’ money.

The investors say they are frustrated because they do not know when they will be paid.

One, who did not want to be named because he did not want his loss to be made public, said the Reserve Bank’s call centre could not assist him with his queries about the pay-outs.

“I do not understand what is going on. We were informed that this process would take three months starting from August, but when I called at the end of September, they did not have answers.”

Another investor, who also did not want to be named, said he had recently received an SMS saying the Ingede Liquidation and Distribution Account had been lodged with the Master of the High Court.

The SMS reads: “We are hoping that the account will be confirmed before Christmas so that payments can be made.”

The investor said he was upset that the information was being passed to them via SMS.

“It is upsetting because we do not know what to believe.”

The Reserve Bank declined to respond to questions sent by The Mercury last week.

The Registrar of Banks, Rene van Wyk, said: “The South African Reserve Bank is prohibited by law to publicise any information that we have acquired in the course of our duties and functions.”

Goqo is expected to go on trial in the Durban Regional Court next year. He is in custody after being denied bail three times by the Commercial Crime Court and the Durban High Court. - The Mercury