The Democratic Alliance is facing a court challenge from the trustees of German fraudster Jurgen Harksen’s estate over a donation to the party from the mysterious ”Hans”.
The trustees say Hans, who according to evidence before the Desai Commission gave 99 000 Deutschmarks to the DA, was in fact Harksen. They are seeking the return of the cash to distribute among more than 100 creditors of Harksen’s estate.
One of the trustees of his estate, Michael Lane, said on Wednesday the claim against the DA had been set down for hearing in the Cape High Court on June 7.
Chairperson of the DA federal executive James Selfe said he had no comment.
Harksen, who was declared insolvent in 1995, was returned to his native Germany in 2002 after a nine-year battle against extradition.
Last year a Hamburg court found him guilty of fraud and sentenced him to just under seven years in jail. A lawyer for the trustees has estimated that Harksen stole close to R800-million in Germany, fraudulently obtained another R50-million there, and had stolen a further R100-million since his arrival in South Africa in 1993.
So far, sorting out the tangled web he wove has involved some 120 High Court cases, a figure which excludes numerous actions in magistrate’s courts, protracted insolvency hearings, and search and seizure applications. – Sapa