In two more cases, the financial advice ombud has ordered advisers to repay pensioner clients the money they lost in failed property syndication investments.
Noluntu Bam, the Ombud for Financial Services Providers, has made several rulings against Huis van Oranje Financial Services, a financial advice firm in Pretoria, and its key representatives, including Stephanus van der Walt, for putting its clients into property developments via Realcor, the company that promoted and raised capital for these developments. In the latest case, she ruled that Huis van Oranje and Van der Walt were jointly and severally liable to repay Mr N the R110 000 he invested in 2008 and 2009.
In the second ruling, Bam ordered Johann Nell Financial Services of Pinehurst, Western Cape, and its key representative, Johann Nell, to repay Mrs J the R107 000 she invested in a Sharemax development in 2007.
In both cases, among Bam’s reasons were that the advisers did not disclose all the risks involved in these investments, and that the pensioners would never have committed their savings had they been fully aware of the risks.