PRETORIA: Agri Smart Investments (ASI) founder David Scott Laughland faces a lawsuit running into millions of rand 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 percent equity and get a promise of a R1 000 monthly payout, for R250 000 and a silver package they were promised a 5 percent equity share with a R10 000 monthly payout, or for R2.5 million they could look forward to a 50 percent 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 the company’s 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.
Its other premises in Mary-Lynn have also been closed. ASI advertised extensively in newspapers, including the Pretoria News, and still has billboards up on major roads around Pretoria and Johannesburg.
Customer service website Hellopeter 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.
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 was 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 with expensive gifts. Laughland lived in a mansion in Silver Lakes, according to the former employee.
“He doesn’t care about the business or the people he has been stealing money from,” the man added.
But Laughland said despite its doors being forced shut, ASI would continue to operate.
Laughland claimed no one had any evidence linking him to fraud or stealing money from his investors, and insisted that his former business partners were the ones in the wrong.
“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,” Laughland said.
There is a class action pending against the company in the North Gauteng High Court, where 50 people are accusing Laughland and ASI of defrauding them.
Christo van Niekerk, from Steenkamp Attorneys, is representing them and 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.