The state has provisionally dropped charges against Michael Haldane and Sona Pillay but investors could seek private prosecution. (File photo)
Investors who lost their life savings in the R3 billion BHI Trust Ponzi scheme have lambasted a recent decision to allow fraud co-accused Michael Haldane to leave the country to visit a family member in Japan.
Several investors, who expressed their outrage about the decision this week, are among about 40 investors who wrote letters of complaint to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to protest against the decision, saying they fear Haldane, who was a director of Global & Local, which marketed the trust, is a flight risk, especially given the international nature of his business dealings.
Haldane, 55, was arrested, along with co-accused Sona Pillay, 54, on charges of fraud and money laundering in connection with the Ponzi scheme in June after BHI Trust trustee, Craig Warriner, 60, was convicted of fraud and sentenced in May to an effective 25 years in prison for his role in the scheme.
Haldane and Pillay were granted bail of R100 000 each in the Palm Ridge magistrate’s court.
Warriner had pleaded guilty to 206 counts of fraud and one of contravening the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act for operating an investment scheme without a licence or being registered as a financial services provider.
His co-trustee, Christian Ashcroft, opened a case against Warriner after he lost money in the scheme and investors started asking questions. The scheme finally collapsed in October 2023.
Haldane and Pillay were debarred for 30 years by the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) along with Global & Local associate Mauro Forlin on 3 October 2024.
The FSCA also withdrew Global & Local’s financial services provider licence after its investigation found that the trio had conducted financial services with the unlicensed BHI Trust in contravention of the law.
About 200 people, many of them pensioners, lost an estimated R1.6 billion in the scheme, which Warriner told the court he had “managed irresponsibly” using investors’ funds to pay out fake returns.
A married couple, who lost more than R5 million, their life savings, in the scheme and asked to remain anonymous, said hearing that Haldane would be permitted to travel to Japan to visit his mother-in-law was “shattering”.
“I was absolutely in shock. We actually could not believe what was going on. To let a guy that’s got such major charges against him to just leave the country or go have a holiday or visit a relative, or whatever the excuse was? How do you let this guy out of the country, knowing what he’s done to so many people?” the wife said.
They had been introduced to Global & Local by a close family member who trusted the company.
“I can still remember these Global & Local guys sitting in my dining room talking to us and reassuring us that this is the best thing, ‘we’ll look after you’ … I even asked, is this a Ponzi scheme? Is this like Sharemax ([ scheme in which investors lost an estimated R8 billion] and when we asked the question he laughed,” she said.
Adding to the couple’s stress, she said they had also received letters of demand from the liquidators of the BHI Trust, despite having lost their life savings in the scheme.
“This is why we are on the grey list, because it’s like a haven in South Africa. Come here, do the crime, do whatever you need to do, and disappear and no one will find you, and who cares who you harm in the process?”
South Africa was greylisted by the global financial crime watchdog Financial Action Task Force in February 2023
“I don’t think we’re ever going to see this money, and I do believe they should be holding Haldane here. Maybe they don’t want to prosecute Haldane for some reason, because last year, everybody went and we laid charges, and we did whatever we needed to do,” she said.
“As far as the authorities go in this country, we just feel let down. I feel it’s very hopeless and like letting Haldane go when he knows where all the money has been syphoned is basically saying ‘well done. Please go on holiday and enjoy yourself and enjoy the money’,” she said.
A second investor said she was angry at the “generic” response the NPA sent to the investors following their letters of complaint about Haldane being allowed to travel.
“Everyone’s up in arms about this, because we all put in an objection and she’s come back with a generic reply, saying to us, we need to furnish [information] back to her. I almost exploded like a pressure cooker last night,” she said.
She said investors had already submitted their evidence to the police after they had opened cases.
“We have all lost a lot of money and I don’t know if we are going to get any of it back,” she said.
She said she suspected that Haldane would connect with Katrinos “Kaddy” Cost, another associate who had communicated with investors regarding the BHI Trust — which M&G has seen — who is believed to have fled the country in 2023.
“How can they allow him to travel while the FSCA has debarred Haldane and Forlin? The FSCA is lacking control,” she said.
A third investor who lost more than R5 million asked the same question.
“He is basically being convicted for financial misconduct by the FSCA. So he’s a very dangerous person to let go. And he’s involved with a lot of this BHI with Warriner. He and Pillay, and Forlin … a whole bunch of them. It was like a money heist,” he said.
Haldane’s attorney, Heetesh Patel, said the matter was still before the courts and his client chose not to comment at this stage.
NPA spokesperson for Gauteng, Phindi Mjonondwane, said the court had granted Haldane permission to travel following his application for the relaxation of his travel restrictions.
“His application was not opposed by the NPA as we had no evidence at our disposal, nor was the court furnished with any evidence under oath, suggesting that he could be a flight risk. The NPA is therefore not in any position to revoke the decision of the court,” Mjonondwane said.
“We can confirm that we received complaints from some of the investors, who have not submitted any affidavits in the criminal case indicating the exact nature of the accused fraudulent conduct, nor have we received any supporting documents to this effect.
“It is crucial to note that these complaints were received after the accused was granted permission to travel.”
She said the NPA had replied to the complaints in writing on 21 October.
But forensic investigator Bart Henderson, who has been assisting victims, said “A great number of investors have provided the state with sworn affidavits, and have laid individual criminal complaints against Michael Haldane and others in their individual capacities during Warriner’s trial.
“These were added to the Warriner docket it appears, and now seem to have been discarded upon Warriner’s conviction. The NPA is acting as if there aren’t dozens of registered criminal complaints with supporting evidence already filed and registered against Global and Local and Haldane,” he said.
Henderson said the state is also “well aware” that the “bookkeeper” of the trust has fled overseas, and multiple reports suggest he has done so with all the BHI data and records.
“I leave it up to the public and the NPA to decide, whether the NPA not opposing overseas travel plans of a principal accused in one of the biggest Ponzi’s in at least the last decade was a good idea, in light of the above, especially while hundreds of millions, if not billions, have still not been recovered,” Henderson said.