Banking giant Standard Bank and its CEO Sim Tshabalala have been dragged to court over an international business deal, which has all the hallmarks of an Italian Job fiction.
South African-born businesswoman Zoliwe Macanda-Simbodyal has approached the Joburg High Court on an urgent basis in her bid to compel the bank to release €2.7 billion (R44.5-billion) she claims it is unlawfully withholding.
Macanda-Simbodyal, who spends most of her time in the UK, in her affidavit, said she entered three deals with London-based investors who partnered with her company, Bele Holdings, to invest in trading “Bonny Light crude oil from
Nigeria and Liquified Natural Gas (NLG) from Papua New Guinea”.
One of the investors, identified as London-based company Gcube Underwriting Limited allegedly made two investments (€1.5-billion and €250-million) in the project – money which Macanda-Simbodyal claims was paid in Bele’s customer foreign currency (CFC) account held with Standard Bank. Gcube was allegedly represented by its CEO Fraser McLachlan.
Another investor, Polireddy Yannam, allegedly invested €950-million, which is said to have also been deposited into Bele’s Standard Bank account.
Bonny Light Crude Oil (BLCO) is a high-grade Nigerian crude oil produced in the Niger Delta basin and named after the city of Bonny. The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is the official source for BLCO.
Macanda-Simbodyal said Standard Bank had unlawfully held the money, which has had a negative impact on her business’ operations.
“Following the Applicant (Bele) being officially advised and informed by the first investor (Gcube) regarding the payment made and the duty to have an arrangement made with various companies in Nigeria and ensuring trading of the stock held in Dubai, the applicant continued to procure towards the projects in Nigeria, which are seemingly valued at €23-billion.
“Since then, this service provider including several companies that were responsible for the stock held, have been in contact with the applicant and the investors, pressuring delivery since each day the vessel does not leave the dock, the applicant is billed for same, including storage and the costs of further crude mined so far,” she said.
In its defence, Standard Bank said Bele’s CFC account only had €100 (R1 600) as of last month and suggested Macanda-Simbodyal could have been duped by her “investors”.
“Standard Bank has repeatedly told the applicant the truth concerning the funds, but the applicant, due to desperation or a lack of understanding as to how SWIFT payments work or for reasons unknown to the applicant, simply refuses to accept the truth.
“… Standard Bank has reason to believe that the documents (proof of payments provided by Macanda-Simbodyal) are not legitimate,” the bank said in its answering affidavit.
Deutsche Bank, which according to Macanda-Simbodyal, Gcube used to transfer the funds to Standard Bank, also distanced itself from the transactions.
Macanda-Simbodyal, is the CEO of Chun Can Capital Group.
Sunday World could not get hold of McLachlan. Questions sent to his email on Wednesday received an automated response: “I am currently out of the office with very limited access to email or mobile. I will respond to you when I can.”
Yannam could not be traced.
Macanda-Simbodyal’s lawyer Thando Faku did not respond to questions sent to him and his phones went unanswered.
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