Cape Town - After a six-year battle, J Arthur Brown on Wednesday walked out of the Western Cape High Court a free man – but he says he will “only be free” once he’s helped Fidentia’s investors recover their money.
Brown, the former chief executive of Fidentia, was effectively sentenced to a R150 000 fine. He was dealt this punishment in respect of two counts of fraud – of which he was convicted last month – relating to the financial services company’s business dealing with the Transport Education and Training Authority and the Mantadia Asset Trust Company.
Speaking outside the courthouse once he’d paid his fine, Brown said the “job’s not done yet”. The fight, he said, would now start in getting investors’ money back. Fidentia was placed under curatorship in 2007 and Brown blames the curators for the losses, maintaining that when they had taken over the company’s affairs, there were sufficient assets to cover its liabilities.
He said he would be pursuing criminal charges and civil actions against the curators, and that they would also be doing proper forensic audits to “(get) the truth out”.
“The court has given me an opportunity to rectify this thing and I will use every waking hour to do that,” Brown said.
Commenting on Judge Anton Veldhuizen’s criticism of the State’s handling of the case, Brown said: “The State’s case is only as strong as the charges brought by the curators, so I don’t think that the State needs to be criticised in this. Obviously the curators came with a whole lot of stories and the evidence that was presented in court didn’t support it, and I think the judge’s comments should be seen in that perspective.”
One of the State witnesses who testified in aggravation of sentence was Financial Services Board (FSB) chief financial officer Dawood Seedat, who told the court of the findings in a report they had compiled based on an FSB investigation spanning June 2006 to January 2007. Seedat testified, among other points, that R406 million had been unaccounted for in Fidentia’s books.
Brown said because Seedat’s testimony had been presented during sentencing procedures, the defence hadn’t had a chance to test the FSB’s allegations.
“The FSB report was never ever tested in court.“
On a personal note, Brown said he would be going to see his children, who he hasn’t seen in about five years since they moved to Australia with his wife Susan.
Cape Times