A sheriff has seized assets from embattled diamond dealer Louis Liebenberg’s house in Cape Town, just days after launching his political party.
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Liebenberg (59) is the owner of Tariomix (also known as Forever Diamonds and Gold), a company that finances the buying and selling of diamonds. The Mahikeng High Court in the North West placed it into final liquidation earlier this month.
According to the Southern African Legal Information Institute, 13 court applicants alleged that the company’s business model was a Ponzi scheme, which involved investors buying into diamond parcels.
In return, Tariomix promised to resell at high profits.
However, the scheme led to them losing significant amounts of money, causing Tariomix to owe the applicants and be unable to pay its indebtedness to them.
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The applicants in the court matter further alleged that Tariomix collected about R4 billion from its investors and creditors, including the liquidating creditors in the court application.
A legal representative of the liquidators of Tariomix told News24 that it launched the raid on Wednesday. A separate raid was conducted at Liebenberg’s offices in Kempton Park, Gauteng.
On 18 April, Liebenberg launched his political party, Herbou (Rebuild), in Johannesburg. As reported by News24, he is running as an independent candidate.
As per his election team, Liebenberg is a ‘staunch supporter of economic reform and is campaigning for the mineral wealth of the country to be placed in the hands of ordinary people’.
He also reportedly stated that he would work closely with former president Jacob Zuma’s MK party if he were elected to parliament.
He previously gave Zuma R3.2 million to help him cover his private prosecution bids against News24 journalist Karyn Maughan and senior state advocate Billy Downer, as well as a separate case against President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Zuma’s case against Maughan and Downer was struck from the court roll last week by the KwaZulu-Natal High Court.
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Picture: Elizabeth Sejake / Gallo Images