Louis Liebenberg, a diamond dealer who helped fund former president Jacob Zuma’s private prosecution matter, has been arrested in an alleged R4 billion diamond investment scam.
The charges for which Liebenberg was arrested relate to fraud, money laundering, theft and racketeering and are linked to an alleged scam that started in 2019.
Hawks spokesperson Colonel Philani Nkwalase said the operation led to the rounding up of eight suspects in Gauteng and the North West province.
“The suspects include a couple wherein the husband is alleged to be the mastermind behind the scam along with his wife. Diamond investors were scammed of more than R4 billion since 2019,” Nkwalase said in a statement.
Liebenberg gained prominence when it was reported that he paid Zuma's legal fees.
Liebenberg’s company Tariomix bought and sold polished diamonds and financed diamond transactions.
An insolvency inquiry earlier this year linked to the company’s provisional liquidation revealed that Liebenberg had paid R3.2 million in total to Zuma’s legal team.
The two met in April 2022 at Nkandla, where Liebenberg presented Zuma with two Nguni cattle.
In October, during Zuma’s private prosecution bid against Arms Deal prosecutor Billy Downer and a News24 journalist, his legal team told the Pietermaritzburg High Court that Liebenberg had raised R500 000 as security.
Liebenberg paid R1 million for an item that was auctioned at an uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) gala dinner that was held on the eve of the party’s manifesto launch earlier this year.
Speaking to the media during the party’s manifesto launch Liebenberg said the MK leader would become president again.
A party source said on Wednesday that Liebenberg had no affiliation to the MKP.
“Currently he is not linked to any party structure or decision-making body, he has no association in terms of the party.
“He may be a friend of the party president but there are always those who try to find Zuma guilty by association.”
The source said that it was unfair that eyebrows are raised when anyone associated with Zuma was embroiled in a controversial issue.
“The Gupta family was associated with presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe but people seem to forget that...they forget that the Guptas funded rallies and gala dinners for other political parties.”
DA national spokesperson Willie Aucamp said the arrest of Liebenberg and his associates “is an important step in the pursuit of justice for the many victims of his alleged diamond investment scam”.
“This moment is a tribute to the relentless determination of former Northern Cape Member of Parliament Veronica van Dyk, who played a pivotal role in exposing his nefarious activities.
“Despite facing enormous pressure and intimidation from Liebenberg, including a R5 million lawsuit for so-called defamation, Veronica remained steadfast in her commitment to truth and justice.”
Aucamp said Liebenberg’s arrest showed that no one was above the law.
Liebenberg’s online publication, Die Waarheid Media, announced the news of the couple’s arrest through a statement on their website.
“Louis and Dezzi Liebenberg have just been arrested by around 15 heavily weaponed men from the Hawks at Tonino, an Italian Country Club at the Benoni Country Club where they had dinner.”
“The Liebenbergs are expected to appear in a magistrate’s court tomorrow,” the statement read.
The Mercury