Craig Warriner. Graphic representation by John McCann/M&G
This article was corrected on 28 August 2024. Please see the full clarification at the bottom of this article.
Global and Local Financial Advisors, the company that apparently promoted investments in the alleged almost R3 billion BHI Trust ponzi scheme to local people, has diverse international links and appears to be half-owned by a South African expat living abroad and listed as a Swiss resident.
However, the expat, Newman Leech said he did not own 50% of Global and Local and that the company’s name was merely listed on the share certificate in 2010 as the firms shared a postal address. He produced a recent share certificate dated 3 June 2024 which shows that he currently does not hold any shares in the business.
Newman George Leech, who has previously been associated with a company in the Panama Papers, also shared a directorship of London registered company RE Capital Holdings with Global and Local representative Michael Haldane, until 30 October last year.
Haldane, who many BHI Trust investors allege encouraged them to invest and whose name appears on company documents regarding their investments, suddenly resigned from RE Capital Holdings at the time of the collapse of the trust last October.
About six months after the original version of this article was published Leech, though his attorneys, advised the M&G that Haldane had, in fact, been asked to resign shortly after the news of the trust’s collapse broke. His spokesperson had initially advised M&G not to use any information regarding his responses to questions posed about his association with Haldane at the time.
Co-trustee Craig Warriner handed himself over to the police in mid-October and told the Randburg magistrate’s court that he wanted to plead guilty to the charges of fraud against him because he had managed the fund “irresponsibly”.
The matter was transferred to the Palm Ridge magistrate’s court, which denied his bail application after the state argued that he is a flight risk and untrustworthy.
Private forensic investigator Bart Henderson, who has identified at least 200 investors who together have lost millions of rand of their life savings and pensions in the BHI Trust, alerted the Sandton police station commander to the links between Haldane and Leech in a letter urging police to prioritise the case after progress in the investigation appeared to be moving slowly.
Henderson said he had files of evidence related to the case, including documents pointing to links with international firms in the British Virgin Islands and to Leech and others, but the police had not yet assigned a specialist investigator to conduct an interview with him to gather the information.
“Incidentally, you can find Mr Newman George Leech and his network of offshore companies listed in the Panama Papers [for a previous company he was director of] … Haldane is clearly linked to the British Virgin Island operation directly and through his relationship with Mr Newman George Leech a veritable network of offshore havens and structures,” Henderson alleged in his letter to the police.
Leech remains as a director of RE Capital Holdings and appears to be a 50% shareholder in Global and Local through a company called Geneva Management Group and is also listed as a director of Wasabi Management LTD on a company document signed by Katrinos (Kaddy) Cost, who issued investor statements on behalf of BHI Trust’s administrator, Rubicon Administration, as late as September 2023 before its crash.
Leech’s representative in the United Kingdom repeatedly declined to comment on the company ownership and links to Leech despite being approached on several occasions by the Mail & Guardian in recent weeks. He provided “background” information but declined to allow its publication and refused to comment. Similar attempts to contact Haldane have also been unsuccessful.
Beyond Global and Local and the South African based Rubicon Administration, Henderson discovered a linked Rubicon Global Limited, which is resident in the British Virgin Islands.
“This company, along with a company called Geneva Management Group, appear to be 100% shareholders of South Africa’s Global and Local Investment Advisors according to documents,” Henderson said.
However, Leech said neither he nor Geneva Management Group have ever held shares in Rubicon Administration or Rubicon Global Limited.
Leech was previously appointed as a director and was a shareholder of the Geneva Management Group which was named in the Panama Papers.
Sona Pillay, a director of Rubicon Trust, is listed as a current director of Rubicon Administration, which was previously owned by the former.
Pillay said he and his partner had bought out Rubicon Trust in 2018 and the company has been independently run ever since. He said he had taken on the directorship of Rubicon Administration solely to shut down the company.
Pillay said he had previously worked for Geneva Management Group, of which Leech was a director, “and, yes, it does have massive offshore companies… We are all connected somehow. We all know each other but no one knew what Mr Warriner was doing.”
However, Leech said GMG did not have companies listed on the LSE. He said had had no association with Rubicon Trust and Rubicon Administration and that the only relationship he had with Pillay was until 2012 when he left the employ of GMG of which he had been a director.
Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (Hawks) spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo earlier confirmed that the unit is investigating two cases of fraud against Warriner.
“The main case relating to the BHI ponzi scheme was in court on 29 November 2023 and postponed to 20 March 2024. The one opened in Sandton … will be an additional charge to the main charge,” Mbambo said.
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) declined to comment on the status of its investigation into BHI Trust and several registered financial service providers, which it has not yet named, linked to the case, except to confirm that Global and Local is under investigation. The authority issued a call to investors last month to come forward with any information that could assist it with the case.
“We cannot give further details at this stage, except to say that the investigation is ongoing,” the FSCA said. We’ve received numerous responses from investors and are currently processing the information received.”
Leech told M&G that he is not linked to the BHI Trust and neither the police nor the FSCA have contacted him regarding the scheme.
On 10 January 2024, we published the above article. Following the publication of the article, Mr Leech and RE Capital Holdings Limited, a company of which Mr Leech is a director, provided us with further information.
Having considered the further information, we have made amendments to the article to include Mr Leech’s responses and wish to clarify that the Mail & Guardian accepts that a share certificate dated 3 June 2024 that has been provided to us shows that Mr Leech and the Gevena Management Group (GMG) do not hold any shares in Global and Local Financial Advisors (Global and Local): the company that is implicated in the BHI Trust Ponzi scheme. Mr Leech advises that neither he nor GMG owns, or has ever owned, 50% of Global and Local.
Mr Leech also refutes all allegations of wrongdoing by either himself or RE Capital and Mr Leech denies that he, RE Capital, and GMG is, or was ever, linked to, or involved in, the BHI Trust Ponzi scheme. The Mail & Guardian has not seen evidence suggesting that Mr Leech, RE Capital, or GMG is involved in the scheme.