The Financial Services Board (FSB) and Rinate Goosen, a general manager in its Fais enforcement division and the wife of Sharemax and Unlisted Shares South Africa (USSA) director Gert Goosen, have agreed to terminate her contract at the FSB.
Rinate Goosen was previously a compliance officer of FSP Network and rejoined the FSB after Sharemax collapsed.
In a “joint press statement” published in Die Burger on March 15, the FSB and Goosen stated they had agreed the termination of her contract was necessitated by the negative impression created by her association with USSA.
This statement was last week not among the media releases on the FSB’s website.
The statement said negative media publicity about Goosen’s previous association with USSA had damaged the independence of the FSB and created a negative impression of the FSB and of her involvement with USSA and Sharemax.
The FSB said Goosen was “an exceptional employee and the FSB would recommend her to any prospective employer”.
In a ruling in favour of Gerbrecht Siegrist, the ombud for financial advisory and intermediary services, a division of the FSB, said USSA had abused the Fais Act to take advantage of a loophole, which effectively allowed unlicensed financial service providers “to sell risky investments to an unsuspecting public”. Gert Goosen was found partly liable to repay Siegrist.
The FSB admitted that Goosen and the Sharemax directors disagreed with the opinions and views of the Fais ombud in this determination, particularly that Sharemax was a Ponzi scheme. – Roy Cokayne