Durban - One of hundreds of victims of the alleged ponzi scheme, targeting pensioners told the court on Tuesday that he withdrew his investment at Sanlam and invested with Global Investments Club.
Mogambery Govender, the former police captain continued giving evidence under cross examination in the Pinetown Regional Court.
He told the court that his investment was not growing at the pace he expected at Sanlam.
Govender who was allegedly defrauded R400 000 of his pension money was the first witness to take the stand in the trial against siblings Mervyn Dennis and his sister Mary Anne Peter more than 15 years after Govender, 70, from Isipingo, and hundreds of other investors lost their money.
The pair allegedly convinced pensioners to invest their money with promises of good returns on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
The former police officer took a package and invested R400000 of his R800000 pension payout through Dennis’s company, Global Investments Club in 2003 and allegedly promised a monthly interest of R8000.
Govender under cross examination said although he also received R8000 interest at Sanlam, Dennis promised him the same monthly interest and that his money would grow faster if he invested with him in the JSE.
" I believed him because the JSE is a reputable consultium, and my money did grow, according to the statements from Global Investments Club I received in my mail," said Govender.
He said he received statement letters which showed that his money was growing.
He said according to the statements his investment of R400 000 grew by R150 000 in just one year, which was way more than what would have been at Sanlam.
He said he went to Dennis's offices at Mercury House in the Durban City Centre on several occasions to demand his money when he did not receive his interest payout for six months.
He said that everytime he went there, only Peter and other staff members were in the office.
He admitted that a year after later, he received a total of R70 000 which were cheque and direct deposits made on different occasions.
Defence attorney Riana Naidoo admitted that it was common cause that Govender had invested R40 000, but in dispute was the amount of interest that Government received for his investment.
Naidoo argued that his instructions were that Govender had been paid out a total of R80 000, which Govender denied, insisting that it was R70 000.
The case continues