When it became clear that Saambou Bank was in serious financial difficulty in 2002, it set off an unprecedented run on the bank by desperate clients who withdrew R1-billion of their savings.
Fearing they would lose their money, clients converged on the bank in droves, and precipitated the collapse of what was then South Africa's seventh biggest bank.
It was the country's biggest ever corporate collapse. Six years later, two of the bank's senior officials went on trial this week on 13 charges including fraud, theft and contravening the Companies Act, involving more than R690-million.
In the dock in the Pretoria High Court this week - in what could be the most complex insider-trading trial yet in South Africa - are Charles Edwards, the former director for personal banking at Saambou Bank, and Gerhardus de Clercq, the general manager of Saambou Holdings group finance and later of strategic planning. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
A third accused, Saambou's former chief executive, Johan Myburgh, died in December of cancer.
Central to the charges against the men are that they prevented information on the failing financial status of Saambou Bank and Saambou Holdings from being disclosed to shareholders, depositors and investors.
The case against the men is so intricate that prosecutor Danie Dorfling, of the National Prosecuting Authority's Directorate of Special Operations, told the presiding judge that the court would fully comprehend the charges only once the state had led all its evidence.
Judge Willem van der Merwe, who presided over the Jacob Zuma rape trial, has the huge task of analysing all the evidence.
The trial could last at least six months, with an array of financial experts expected to take the stand.
While Edwards has chosen to keep mum about his defence, De Clercq claimed he was simply following orders. He said he was never a director, but a mere employee who did what he was told.
He added that he never took part in any decision-making regarding the implementation of any of the schemes referred to in the indictment, and claimed these decisions were made at management level.
In his day-long opening address, Dorfling said the factual basis for the pair's liability was in a number of financial structures created within Saambou Bank.
Evidence which will prove that the accused's involvement in financial transactions pertaining to these structures and the recording thereof in the financial records of Saambou Holdings and Saambou Bank was in a manner which the state contends was criminal, he said.
And, due to the intricate and complex nature of the financial structures, the allegations against the accused could be fully considered and evaluated only against the background of an in-depth analysis of these financial structures. This, Dorfling told the judge, "can only be achieved by way of a thorough and patient consideration of matters of extreme financial complexity".
In several instances, the allegations would be fully understood only after the state's evidence had been led.
"It is for this reason that the prosecution intends presenting evidence against the accused over a number of months to properly contextualise the charges," he said.
Dorfling said the state would seek to prove that the men conducted the business of Saambou Bank in a reckless manner, that they made false entries in the books of Saambou Bank and Saambou Holdings, and that they gave financial assistance regarding the purchase of shares of Saambou Bank, in contravention of the provisions of the Companies Act.
The investigation into the affairs of Saambou Bank had its origins in an inspection carried out into the bank's affairs. This culminated in a report being handed to the registrar of banks in July 2002.
The registrar in turn handed the matter over to the National Prosecuting Authority, which in turn handed it to the Directorate of Special Operations.
On September 22 2004 the NPA appointed forensic auditors KPMG to assist it in its investigation.
This resulted in a forensic report comprising about 6 000 pages in which the financial structures mentioned, with reference to the actions of a multiplicity of role-players, are explained.
Forensic auditor Johan van der Walt was the first witness to be called to the stand this week.
He is presenting his report to Judge Van der Merwe, and it is expected that he will be in the witness box for the next few weeks.