Pretoria - Agri Smart Investments (ASI) founder David Scott Laughland faces a lawsuit running into millions of rands from investors who claim they were duped into investing in chicken farms that did not exist.
For R25 000 investors could choose a bronze package for a 0.5% equity and get a promise of a R1 000 monthly payout; for R250 000 and a silver package they were promised a 5% equity share with a R10 000 monthly payout; or for R2.5 million they could look forward to a 50% equity share, with a payout promise of R100 000 every month.
Packages are outlined on a Facebook page with an image of a chicken house. But the doors of Agri Smart’s company head office in Garsfontein are locked and while the official branding was still there and furniture could be seen inside, there was no one in the building.
ASI advertised extensively in newspapers - including the Pretoria News - and still has billboards up on major roads around Pretoria and Joburg.
Laughland made headlines last year when he posted a video with business partner Kagiso Mokoape saying they were renting the house in Pretoria east in which Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend, and that they planned to hold parties there.
Customer service website Hello Peter has complaints from several investors who claimed they were defrauded of their hard-earned money by ASI. There are people who claim to have lost up to R500 000 after investing in the business.
Laughland said he started the company with a great idea and had a few partners he thought he could trust. He needed to employ a lot of people to keep up with the rate the business was growing and because he was not used to everything there may have been people who stole money from the company without him realising it. That is where he said the business started going wrong.
A former employee, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he invested R25 000 in the business and was expecting to receive R1 000 every month from ASI, but after a few months, the money stopped being deposited into his account.
“I think David’s intentions from the beginning were to con people. He is living a lavish lifestyle off people’s money,” the man said.
He said Laughland would rent private jets to fly to Cape Town and had a string of girlfriends whom he would lavish expensive gifts on. He lived in a mansion in Silver Lakes.
“He doesn’t care anything about the business or the people,” the man said.
But Laughland said that despite its doors being forced shut, ASI would continue to operate. He claimed no one had any evidence linking him to fraud or stealing money from his investors and said his former business partners were the ones in the wrong.
He said no one could tie him to any fraud despite a growing list of people adding their names to a lawsuit accusing him and the company of fraud. “These are just all allegations. These are just a lot of bad people who did this, but there is no proof that I did anything.” He claimed his partners stole his business model as well as money from the company. They started their own company with his ideas, he stated.
“They started a company exactly the same as my business. They started stealing clients one by one.”
The business in question is Osizweni Investment Holdings and has a similar business model to ASI, he said.
It is suspected that Osizweni Investment Holdings is Laughland’s new company which he formed after the collapse of ASI; an allegation he has denied. “No, my business is still ASI. I am working on a site in Woodmead because we want to expand to Joburg,” he said.
The Pretoria east offices were closed due to the relevant people not paying rent. The electricity was cut off at the Garsfontein premises.
There is a class action pending against the company in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, where 50 people are accusing Laughland and ASI of defrauding them.
Steenkamp Attorneys is representing them, and Christo van Niekerk, their attorney, filed an application to have the business assets as well as Laughland’s private assets seized so they could get their money back. The case is expected to be heard today.
“I have to appear in court now but I am telling you they have no proof that says I have defrauded them of any money. There’s not a single piece of paper that will show that,” Laughland said.
The business did not have assets that could be seized to make up for the money allegedly lost because 80% of the money went into buying chicken feed.
Laughland said he was now focused on keeping his business alive and would face the court case. He was confident it would not succeed. “I can probably do is sue them. But they are a new company and have no money to sue them for.”
He said he was not a bad person. “I help people. It hurts me to see those I helped turn against me.”
PRETORIA NEWS