Financial services company Alexander Forbes said on Monday no claim for payment of any amount had been made against it regarding alleged fraud during the apartheid era.
AFP reported that the flamboyant United States lawyer Ed Fagan is expected to file a new $100-billion lawsuit on Monday in a New York court against at least five companies accused of defrauding South African workers during the apartheid era.
John Ngcebetsha, the South African lawyer representing the claimants, said on Sunday a class action suit was expected to be filed in the New York State Court against the companies, which include giant South African finance group Alexander Forbes.
”The claims will be filed on behalf of ex-workers who deposited money into pension, health, life, unemployment and retirement funds, and never received a cent back from these companies,” Ngcebetsha said.
Alexander Forbes said on Monday it had earlier in the day received a communication from attorneys claiming to represent former employees of various companies.
”This communication (the first to have been received in this regard) appears to constitute a demand for information from Alexander Forbes relating to an unspecific potential claim against various parties. No claim for payment of any amount has been made against Alexander Forbes,” the company said in a statement.
According to papers to be lodged before the court, a copy of which was given to AFP on Sunday, other companies listed in the lawsuit include the Union Carbide corporation and the Dow Chemical company.
The companies are accused of defrauding workers of billions of dollars/rand.
The suit was filed against ”the plaintiff facilities in and around the Republic of South Africa who deposited billions of dollars in pension, health, life, unemployment and retirement funds which were later negligently, carelessly or recklessly unaccounted for, improperly transferred, withheld, lost or stolen”.
In May, a group called the Apartheid Claims Task Force announced plans to file a lawsuit worth billions of dollars in New York against South African gold mining company Gold Fields for making blacks work under ”sub-human” conditions during the apartheid regime.
Fagan has also filed or announced plans to file other suits against Swiss and US banks, pharmaceutical conglomerates, car manufacturers, food giant Nestlé and mining companies De Beers and Anglo American, among others, on the grounds that they allegedly benefited under the apartheid regime.
Ngcebetsha further told AFP the lawsuit represented a new claim, and was unrelated to the claims already filed by Fagan, who spearheaded a successful claim against Swiss banks on behalf of Holocaust victims.
President Thabo Mbeki has said in the past the South African government did not support the apartheid claims, as many of the companies were now helping with South Africa’s development. — Sapa
Ed Fagan files $100bn SA lawsuit