Reserve Bank charges former director

Stephen Goodson is a former independent non-executive director of the bank.

Stephen Goodson is a former independent non-executive director of the bank.

Published Mar 1, 2015

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Johannesburg - The Reserve Bank has laid charges against one of its former directors after he wrote a book where he disclosed confidential information about activities of the bank.

Stephen Goodson is a former independent non-executive director of the bank.

He served on the board from 2003 to 2012 as an activist shareholder, but was prohibited from serving another term based on the King III regulations.

Last year, Goodson published a book titled “Inside the South African Reserve Bank: Its Origins and Secrets, where he alleges the bank was involved in criminality and financial irregularities.

According to the Reserve Bank, Goodson might have breached Section 33 of the Reserve Bank Act, which prohibits its director from disclosing bank information.

It is unclear how well Goodson’s book has done since it was published, but many of his writings have been republished on several websites.

The bank said the matter was now in the hands of the police, who had launched an investigation.

“The South African Reserve Bank is concerned that Mr Stephen Goodson, a former director of the bank, may have contravened Section 33 of the South African Reserve Bank Act, 1989.

“Section 33 of the Act constitutes a preservation of secrecy provision.

“The matter is now in the realm of the SAPS and, ultimately, the National Prosecuting Authority.”

“The NPA will determine whether the matter merits any criminal prosecution,” said Reserve Bank spokesman Hlengani Mathebula.

Speaking to Independent Media on Saturday, Goodson said the bank had no case against him.

“They have no grounds to make that claim; they are just using state resources to get back at me for disclosing the truth about the criminal organisation that the bank has become,” he said.

“The Reserve Bank is supposed to work in the public interest, but that is not the case currently. It is a very secretive organisation; that is why they find it absolutely despicable that I dared to reveal the truth about the things they do there.”

In an interview with a Hawks official posted on the internet this week, Goodson’s defence appears to be that the Reserve Bank Act only mentions directors as not allowed to disclose information, while he disclosed the information in the book two years after he had ceased being a member.

Goodson is no stranger to controversy.

In 2012, the bank had to distance itself from controversial remarks attributed to him, in which he appeared to be a Holocaust denialist.

He unceremoniously resigned from the board of the bank one month before his term was due to come to an end.

Sunday Independent

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