Fidentia flashback Mar 2007

WARNING: IF THE FIDENTIA SCANDAL BORES YOU,
PLEASE SKIP THIS POST

FIDENTIA "BRAINS" SELLS UP MONEYWEB LIFTS LID ON MD JOHAN LINDE, BALOYI BOSOM PAL - PLUS HIS LUXURY HOUSES.

JACKIE CAMERON MAR 2007

The once-secretive Fidentia Chairman Arthur Brown has become a household name in South Africa as details of the biggest raid on savings' coffers continue to unfold. But Brown's little-known aide-de-camp Johan Linde is fast-appearing to have been one of the main movers-and-shakers of the Fidentia operation.In addition to holding senior positions in Fidentia, and coming into the business as a friend of Brown, Linde is also a bosom-buddy to black economic empowerment heavyweight, Dr Danisa Baloyi.He is a director of Baloyi's South African Women's Investment Holdings (SAWIH), according to the Financial Services Board (FSB).Moneyweb is reliably informed that he also ensured Fidentia paid an admission of guilt fine for Baloyi in connection with Value Added Tax transgressions. The South African Revenue Service does not officially comment on the affairs of taxpayers.Linde, 40, is understood to have earned an income of at least R200 000/month while working for Fidentia.Lavish spendingLike Brown, Linde spent money as though it was not his own. He recently razed an expensive house in one of Cape Town's exclusive suburbs to rebuild a multi-million rand mansion.Moneyweb recently visited Linde's five-bedroom house in Belle Ombre Road, Tamboerskloof. The renovated and extended Victorian is on sale for about R3,5m - and standing empty.

SELL! SELL! SELL!
He is evidently eager to sell the home as the property is the best priced in its category, according to price information for that area.A potential buyer has made an offer, but the property is still considered to be "on the market" by local agents.A few blocks higher up the rump of Lion's Head, Linde and his partner Daria Schulz, have recently razed a R2m house and replaced it with an enormous R9m residence. The property is in Bay View Avenue, Tamboerskloof.

THE KING MUST LIVE IN A CASTLE
Brown and his wife demolished a multi-million rand seafront house in Sunset Beach, Cape Town, and were planning to build a new home around the time Fidentia was placed under curatorship.Linde's brand-new Bay View Avenue house appeared empty from the outside, and he was away - allegedly in Paarl - last week. But a domestic worker told Moneyweb on Monday that Linde and Schulz and children were at home.The couple failed to return Moneyweb's calls.Moneyweb can reveal that Linde played a key role in decision-making around investors' funds that made their way into the hands of Fidentia and related entities.Brown's right-hand manWe interviewed Linde about two years ago. At the time, he told us he came into the business because he was friends with Brown and other Fidentia founders. A right-hand man to Brown, Linde said Fidentia might "buy" Moneyweb around the time it had embarked on a corporate spending spree, offering way above market-related prices for companies.The former Fidentia MD, unlike a number of other senior Fidentia players, is highly educated. He studied for an MBA at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business and was apparently one of its top students.In Breakwater Business, a UCT publication, Linde is cited as coming second along with fellow team members (class of 2001) in a South African university business schools' case study challenge.Sources say Linde used to regularly bandy about the topic of his MBA thesis. "He spoke about chaos theory. He used to suggest that throwing people within an organisation into uncertainty was a good way of managing people," said one former Fidentia executive.The South African Venture Capitalists Association (SAVCA) 2005 yearbook records Linde as the main point of contact for a R250m fund managed by Fidentia Alternative Investments (Pty) Ltd.The transport Sector Education Training Authority's R250m is one of the funds at the centre of the curator's investigation into the whereabouts of millions of rands that have allegedly been misappropriated.Accountant Graham Maddock and Andrew Tucker are the other two names associated with this particular "fund".The SAVCA yearbook cites property, financial services and insurance as among the investment areas of interest.Sources confirm that Fidentia Alternative Investments was set up specifically to siphon money from Fidentia Asset Management for "private-equity" deals.Fidentia Alternative Investments was later renamed Bramber Alternative (Pty) in April 2006, says the FSB, which has also linked Bramber to the disappearance of millions of rands in the Living Hands trust for mineworkers' widows and orphans.Deep in the organisationAccording to an FSB report to the Cape High Court, Linde is a director of Bramber, an entity central to Fidentia's operations, as well as a director of Baloyi's SAWIH.Baloyi and Linde were in regular contact, with Linde agreeing to ensure that an admission of guilt fine in connection with VAT transgressions was paid before Baloyi had to appear in a Gauteng court last year.Moneyweb is reliably told that although a fine of about R2 000 was paid in connection with four VAT returns and payments, there are still "outstanding" tax issues.Baloyi was summonsed to appear in a Johannesburg court last year in her capacity as public officer of the Mantadia Asset Trust Company (Pty) Ltd, trading as Mantadia Projects 2 (Pty) Ltd. Mantadia is linked to a mineworkers' fund for widows and orphans, more commonly known as the Living Hands trust. It was renamed Living Hands and was the administration company of the Living Hands Trust.Linde's popularity is understood to have waned within Fidentia circles in recent months. However, he was clearly a valued member of the inner clique for some time.The Linde Schulz family trust owns 6,5% of Brown Brothers - of which the J Arthur W Brown family trust owns 35%. In addition, Brown Brothers owns 75% of Fidentia Holdings, while SAWIH owns 10% of Fidentia Holdings.After the Louis Koen family trust and the Jukelyn trust, the Linde Schulz family trust is the largest shareholder in Brown Brothers.Bramber, in turn, is owned by Fidentia Holdings and Fidentia Asset Management, while Fidentia Asset Management is owned by Fidentia Holdings.Bramber, according to the FSB, owned and controlled Living Hands.Fidentia Asset Management, says the FSB, circumvented its licence limitations by inserting in its mandate "the investment in a specific private-equity company, Bramber".The FSB investigators also found that client money "has been invested in Bramber and in certain cases advanced to Fidentia Holdings in order to acquire shares in various private companies".Regardless of what Linde may have been up to in recent months at Fidentia, the FSB report to the Cape High Court paints a picture of shocking corporate governance transgressions, at least, on his watch.No doubt the Fidentia and Bramber's curators will be delving more into Linde and Schulz' personal financial details as they search for assets to repay investors.

NOTE* Baloyi has repeatedly refused to comment to Moneyweb, saying she will wait for the curator's report to the High Court.

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