Justin Arenstein
The Israeli mastermind behind Mpumalanga’s R1,3-billion promissory note scandal has been sentenced in Switzerland to three years in jail and a R1-million fine on multiple theft and fraud charges.
Moshe Regev, also known as Regenstreich, was arrested by United States marshals during a dawn raid on his luxury Las Vegas hideout two years ago after an international manhunt.
He fled South Africa at the height of the promissory note scandal in 1999, but was eventually arrested in Las Vegas after allegedly fleecing European businessmen of $10-million in a series of illicit diamond deals.
Regev was extradited from the US to the Swiss city of Berne in November 2000 and went on trial for the diamond scam last week.
Berne state prosecutor Heinz Mathys told the court that Regev had systematically defrauded a string of German and Swiss companies in 1993/4 by offering them uncut diamonds from a Colombian dealer.
The court heard that he took the money without delivering the stones, using his loot to buy a fleet of luxury cars, gamble “extravagantly” at local casinos and live in some of Europe’s most exclusive hotels.
Mathys said Regev fled first to Germany and then to the US in March 1995 when police began investigating, before flying to South Africa under the name Regenstreich.
Once in South Africa, he set up financial brokerage, Fenetic Investments, and hired two National Intelligence Agency (NIA) operatives, Ian Langworthy and Pieter Louw. The under-cover agents alleged in official reports that Regev was using Fenetic as a front for money laundering and dealing in stolen share certificates.
Regev also used Fenetic to set up the R1,3-billion promissory note deal with Mpumalanga Parks Board CEO Alan Gray in 1998, promising offshore loans of up to R500-million each in return for a contract illegally granting 19 game parks to Fenetic as “unequivocal” collateral.
Regev then brokered a $115-million 12-tonne gold deal and signed an offer to purchase one of alleged mobster Marino Chiavelli’s 30-room palaces in Hyde Park for $2,4-million.
African Eye News Service’s coverage of the promissory note deal led to his eviction from the mansion, his arrest with Langworthy and Louw in a stolen share certificate scam, and Reserve Bank raids on his Fenetic offices.
Langworthy and Louw were disavowed by the NIA and found guilty of fraud.
Regev was initially charged with the NIA operatives after they were caught trying to convince Johannesburg-based BFS Capital to accept share certificates worth $14,3-million as surety in return for a $1,5-million loan. All charges were dropped in January 1998 after the state said it was unable to prove Regev was aware the certificates were stolen.
Regev immediately fled to the US, using a Lesotho passport, but US authorities only began tracing him when the Mail & Guardian reported that he had also been linked to trade in chemical weapons, including deadly sarin nerve gas. US investigators confirmed that the US Congress had blacklisted Regev in 1995 when his import-export company, Mainway, was linked to the sale of chemical weapons equipment to Iran.
He managed to dodge the investigators in New York, but was finally traced to a luxury hideout in Las Vegas and arrested during a televised dawn raid.
Regev, who claims to have been an international spy for Israel, dismissed the Swiss fraud and US chemical weapons charges as a smear campaign by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency but was unable to prove that his activities were anything but personally motivated.
Mathys told the Berne court on Friday that Switzerland’s case against Regev had cost the taxpayers R800 000, and called for the state to force Regev to carry the costs.
The court upheld the plea, added a R150 000 punitive fine, and banned Regev from living, working or travelling in Switzerland for five years after serving his prison term.
The ban, the court said, was meant to ensure that Regev did not commit further crimes in the country. African Eye News Service