Fiona Forde
A Gauteng-based attorney has admitted receiving a R500 000 cash kickback from Auction Alliance when involved in liquidating a company nine years ago.
Cornelius (Cottie) Kirsten is one of a number of attorneys implicated in the auction kickback scandal that was exposed by The Star a fortnight ago and which led to the company’s founder and CEO, Rael Levitt, stepping down a week ago.
In 2003, Levitt instructed his staff to pay a “referral” to Kirsten, insisting that it “will be in cash”, according to an internal paper trail.
At that time, Kirsten was a partner at Guys Louw attorneys in Alberton, specialising in insolvency cases, and was involved in winding down a company called Bosmond Konstruksie.
For appointing Levitt’s company as the mandated auctioneer, Kirsten appears to have been rewarded with a half-a-million-rand payout in return.
When he was approached last week about the matter, Kirsten’s first words were “Oh, my God”, before then admitting that “Yes, I did receive it, from that Levitt fellow, but you know, I haven’t practised (as an attorney) for about six years now”.
Kirsten refused to say why he took the money or what he did with it, although, when contacted at the weekend, the former owner of Bosmond Konstruksie, Jan van Zyl, said he was never made aware of the R500 000, nor did he receive any portion of it.
“Kirsten never told me about this. This is the first I am hearing of it,” Van Zyl told The Star. “Nobody said anything about payments to me. And, you know, R500 000 was a lot of money at that time.”
Levitt also declined to say why he paid the money to Kirsten.
Commission payments to attorneys is legal in some jurisdictions in SA only if it is disclosed and under certain conditions.
The kickback is one of several that have been brought to the attention of The Star in recent weeks.
Bank staff have also been implicated in the scandal, forcing four of the country’s top banks to cease trading with Auction Alliance last week, soon after Levitt stepped down.
As evidence of alleged wrongdoing on the part of staff at Investec, Absa and Nedbank was brought to light, the banks were quick to act and, along with FNB, launched internal probes to get to the bottom of the allegations.
Levitt has also withdrawn his defamation case against Wendy Appelbaum, who filed a 500-page complaint to the National Consumer Commission two months ago about irregularities she flagged during the auction house’s auction of the Quoin Rock wine estate in the Western Cape in December.