Durban - There seems to be no end in sight for the thousands of Durban investors who believe that they have been ripped off in what is alleged to be one of South Africa’s biggest ponzi schemes – Carmol Distributors.
The company, worth over a billion rand, claimed to finance the sale of petroleum products and attracted almost 4 500 investors.
An investigation conducted by the South African Reserve Bank revealed that Carmol contravened the Banks Act earlier this year. It conducted the business of banking by taking deposits from people, illegally.
Carmol offered investors a high return of 6 to 8 percent a month.
It also emerged this week that Carmol boss Yunus Moolla is under investigation by the Hawks Commercial Crime Unit for fraud.
But the thousands of investors who gave away their life savings are demanding Moolla “pay back the money”.
One investor, Shamilla Singh, said that she was on the verge of losing her home.
“We have taken everything and invested it in this company. We put our trust in Moolla and now we are losing our assets. We just want our money back,” said Singh.
The Sunday Tribune met Moolla in April when he promised investors would be paid within two months but he has been unreachable ever since.
Following the Reserve Bank’s findings, auditing firm EY was appointed to conduct a preliminary investigation and, more recently, another auditing firm, KPMG, was instructed to administer the repayment process.
KPMG spokeswoman Ntsiki Mpulo said there was no guarantee of the money being paid back at this stage.
“Our legal obligation is to control and manage the repayment of investors’ monies, which has to be done by Yunus Moolla. We are just there to administer the process,” said Mpulo.
“We cannot confirm at this point if, and when, any monies will be paid back.
“If Moolla is unable to pay back the money, an alternative plan, in the interests of investors, will have to be made,” Mpulo said.
All Carmol-related queries can be sent to KPMG via e-mail [email protected]
Sunday Tribune