THE Western Cape High Court has dismissed an application to stop a forensic report the State believes would confirm that a Parow pastor ran an illicit multi- million Ponzi scheme promising people high returns on investments.
The legal team representing Colin Davids, of New Direction Grace Church, who is under police investigation, were objecting to an Ernst & Young forensic report being handed in as part of the State’s evidence.
The State says he has lost more than R100m of capital invested by people. It has been alleged that Davids made more than R300m.
Davids, sole member of Platinum Forex CC with about 2 000 investors, is being probed for allegedly luring people with promises of returns as high as 84 percent. In July, the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) attached Davids’s assets when it obtained a preservation order.
The defence contended that Davids’s business was not a Ponzi scheme, saying for the four years it was in operation not one person was defaulted on.
But Judge Vincent Saldanha said the question was not whether anyone had been defaulted, rather about whether there was compliance with the law.