Cyril Kern, the businessman who bankrolled Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has ingratiated himself with top opposition figures since settling in Cape Town. His wider circle also extends to a multimillion-dollar fraud suspect who is a fugitive from United States justice.
Kern, a British businessman who made his money in the fashion industry before coming to South Africa in 1996, is at the centre of a funding scandal that is threatening Sharon’s political future. Israeli judicial authorities suspect Sharon and his sons of irregularities in accepting a $1,49-million (then about R19-million) low-interest loan transferred from Kern’s Austrian bank account almost exactly a year ago.
Although Israeli authorities have requested the South African Department of Justice to help obtain evidence relating to the ”nature, purpose and circumstances” of Kern’s loan, they made no allegation against Kern personally.
The scandal broke on Tuesday when Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz published details of the written request for assistance by the Israeli State Attorney’s Office. The request includes the stated suspicion that Sharon and his son Gilad had tried to deceive authorities about the loan.
Kern (72) makes no secret of his close friendship with Sharon, who was his commander in the Israeli independence war of the late 1940s. Confirming the loan, he told the Mail&Guardian this week he had been ”happy to help a friend”.
Locally, Kern counts among his friends and acquaintances Mario Ambrosini, the adviser to Minister of Home Affairs and Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Tony Leon, leader of the Democratic Alliance, prominent New National Party MP Sheila Camerer and Inkatha Freedom Party chief whip Koos van der Merwe.
Leon this week said he knew Kern socially and that ”we certainly see each other from time to time”. He described Kern as ”charming, pleasant and interesting”.
Camerer put it this way: ”We’re all pals. They [Kern and his partner, Annelina] are nice; they’re sweet.” She said Kern has spoken about his frequent visits to Sharon’s family farm in Israel’s Negev desert.
Van der Merwe confirmed having dined with Kern on a number of occasions and inviting him to Parliament’s opening. He also said Kern had arranged for him to have a 10-minute meeting with Sharon when he and other parliamentarians visited Israel and Palestine in 2001.
By many accounts, however, Ambrosini is Kern’s closest contact on the political scene. Ambrosini commented: ”My social life is not a matter of public record.”
An insider this week said of Kern: ”I think he likes important people, or people he perceives as important.” Kern denied he went out of his way to cultivate political friendships. ”It’s very simple. Cape Town is a very small city. If you do have one friend, people invite you to cocktail parties and you meet others.”
One acquaintance that Kern says he does not count among his friends, however, is Stanley Tollman, the disgraced former South African hotel magnate and fugitive from American justice.
Tollman opened the landmark Tollman Towers hotel in Johannesburg in 1970 but left South Africa after his group ran into financial troubles five years later. He then built a hotel and casino empire in Britain and the US, where he rubbed shoulders with political and entertainment high society.
In April last year all came tumbling down when US authorities indicted Tollman on 33 counts carrying a potential 30-year jail sentence.
The indictment detailed a ”massive scheme” in which Tollman and some associates allegedly swindled US banks out of $42-million (presently about R375-million), using an array of front companies and offshore accounts. Tollman failed to appear in court and US authorities want him extradited from Britain, where he is said to reside.
Kern this week said ”a cousin of mine from America” had referred him to Tollman. ”I’ve met him but I’m not a friend. I don’t have a personal relationship and I don’t have a business relationship.”
The M&G has no evidence that Kern has been in contact with Tollman since he became a fugitive from justice and there is no suggestion that Kern participated in any improper conduct relating to Tollman. But their acquaintance does demonstrate Kern’s influential circle of contacts, which also includes Maurice Shawzin, a multimillionaire US-South African businessman who has been close to Tollman. Shawzin this week described Kern as ”a dear friend, a man of high repute and high integrity”.
Ambrosini confirmed that Shawzin had been instrumental in arranging for Buthelezi to officiate at the re-launch in November of the Twelve Apostles hotel on Cape Town’s Atlantic seaboard. The Twelve Apostles is managed by the London-based Red Carnation hotel group founded by Tollman’s wife, Bea.
Ambrosini said the correspondence leading to Buthelezi’s attendance indicated Tollman’s daughter, Victoria, to be the owner of the Twelve Apostles.
”Her business interests are different from those of her father and that is what was put before the minister [Buthelezi]”.
The M&G received a letter on Thursday afternoon from Durban-based law firm Larson Bruorton and Falconer Incorporated, acting for Kern and threatening an interdict. Larson Bruorton and Falconer is the Inkatha Freedom Party’s law firm of choice.