Shoprite chairman Christo Wiese is employing the services of UK barrister Clare Montgomery – who is defending Shrien Dewani, the British newlywed accused of hiring a hitman to kill his bride – to represent him in his appeal against the confiscation of some R7 million in cash and traveller’s cheques in London last year.
Montgomery, a queen’s counsel renowned for taking on tough cases, will act for Wiese in what the London Independent dubs the case “of the erstwhile owner of discount retailer Poundstretcher”. She will argue an appeal of the recent ruling by the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, which decided it was “satisfied the cash was associated with criminality”.
In April last year £120 000 (R1.3 million at yesterday’s exchange rate) was found in Wiese’s hand luggage when the UK Border Agency searched him at City Airport. He had £554 920 in his checked-in bags.
Wiese, who is also chairman of Pepkor and has interests in a string of British businesses, has insisted that he was moving money from a safetydeposit box in London to one in Luxembourg. He has already indicated that he would appeal the Westminster ruling.
He said both countries were EU members and he could not see why there was a need to declare the cash.
It has emerged this week that the Supreme Court in the UK has recently ruled in the case of three companies that are all indirectly controlled by Wiese. His personal assistant at Pepkor, Isak Visagie, said Wiese was still on holiday and Visagie could not comment on legal matters associated with Wiese.
Wiese, who owns a spa complex and the Lanzerac hotel in Stellenbosch and Lourensford wine estate in Somerset West, was believed to be in Mauritius.
In a case that was heard on October 5, a judgment was delivered on December 8 in the appeal of the decision on the case of Progress Property Company (appellant) v Moorgarth Group (respondent), the Judge President, Lord Phillips, together with Lords Walker, Mance, Collins and Clarke, found that a genuine commercial sale had occurred.
The lords had to determine whether there had been an unlawful distribution of capital when the appellant company, Progress Property Company (PPC), sold the whole issued share capital of a wholly owned subsidiary, YMS Properties (No 1) (YMS1), to Moorgarth. The judgment noted that all the companies “were indirectly controlled by Dr Christo Wiese, a South African investor”.
In Lord Walker’s judgment he notes that, roughly between April and October 2003, Wiese’s investments included interests in the “value” sector, or lower end, of the UK retail market.
At the time he indirectly controlled, through Brown & Jackson (now Instore), two retail chains, Poundstretcher and Your More Store. These businesses were not flourishing and in the early months of 2003 he took various steps intended to improve their prosperity.
Your More Store became a subsidiary of Tradegro (UK), which the court noted was another company controlled by Wiese.
The judgment highlights the complex web of UK businesses in which Wiese had interests. Lord Walker noted that the freehold interest in Your More Store premises was vested in a company called YMS Properties (No 2) which was wholly owned by YMS1. It, in turn, was a subsidiary of PPC. By October 2003, YMS1 had been sold to Moorgarth for £63 225.
Lords Phillips and Mance delivered separate but detailed contributions.
The Judge President concurred with Lord Walker’s judgment that the sale negotiated between the PPC and Moorgarth directors, respectively Charles Price and Cornus Moore – referred to as a right-hand man of Wiese’s – was not a gross undervalue “and perhaps not an undervalue at all”.
The appeal was dismissed on the grounds that it was “not an unlawful distribution of capital dressed up as a sale”. - Donwald Pressly