A former non-executive director of property development group Pinnacle Point, Ivor Stratford, stood down from his role as leader of a church group in Cape Town this week after a salacious email, allegedly sent to him by the consul general of the Seychelles in South Africa, Marie-May Kölsch, was submitted in evidence at the company’s insolvency inquiry.
Stratford told the Mail & Guardian he had offered to stand down as leader of the Lord’s House in the seaside suburb of Hout Bay until the issue had been cleared up.
“Of course I didn’t have an affair with Marie-May Kölsch. That’s what they are trying to infer,” said the married Stratford during a break at the inquiry on Wednesday.
“This is just part of a strategy on the part of the liquidators. She calls everyone ‘darling’ — that is just how she talks.”
The email made front-page news around South Africa and caused an uproar at the inquiry.
Stratford blushed deeply when the email was read out by Gavin Woodland SC, who is examining witnesses on behalf of the liquidators.
“Thanks a million for the 3% shares of the entire development of Ile Aurore,” Kölsch allegedly wrote in her opening paragraph in the email to Stratford in 2008. “When I see you again I will kiss you all over — make sure to wear protection underwear.”
The shares Kölsch is alleged to have referred to in her correspondence with Stratford were in a proposed Seychelles golf development, Ile Aurore Nouvelle.
Stalled project
Pinnacle Point won the tender to develop the golf course on the island, but it never got off the ground.
Kölsch’s correspondence was sent in response to a more formal email from Stratford earlier the same day.
Both emails were sent via Stratford’s personal assistant, Dale Etherington, who has handed over all his bosses’ correspondence to the inquiry. Stratford told the inquiry he was from “the old school” and did not know how to send emails.
In his email, Stratford told Kölsch that her 3% shareholding in Ile Aurore Seychelles was derived from her 30% beneficial shares in another company set up to facilitate transactions in the Seychelles, Indian Ocean Holdings, of which she was a director. The company owned 10% of the Ile Aurore Nouvelle in Seychelles, which had a commercial agreement with the government of the Seychelles, wrote Stratford.
“As discussed with you, we are happy to purchase your interest in Indian Ocean Holdings over the time of the contract and when we are better able to assess the profitability of the development,” he wrote.
‘Sensitive evidence’
On Wednesday, the issue of Kölsch’s 3% shareholding in the Seychelles development was due to be discussed at the open inquiry once again, but Stratford’s advocate, Craig Webster, asked that it be held in camera, because of the “potential sensitivity of this evidence”.
However, Joffe ruled that the press should be allowed to hear the evidence.
Stratford was then grilled by Woodland about $5-million that Pinnacle Point had prematurely paid to the Seychelles government as part of the deal.
Pinnacle Point demanded the money back when it had financial problems but Stratford was accused by Woodland of diverting the money to his own company and pocketing R4-million in foreign exchange benefit.
Stratford countered this by referring to a document, which he claimed were minutes of a board meeting agreeing to this arrangement.
The M&G understands that there was concern about the strain on diplomatic relations between the Seychelles and South Africa if more evidence was given on the share issue in an open inquiry.
Kölsch was subpoenaed to the inquiry, but refused to attend this week, claiming diplomatic immunity.
Woodland has disputed Kölsch’s right to claim diplomatic immunity. He said a consul general was not entitled to the same rights as diplomats. Attempts by the M&G to reach Kölsch were unsuccessful and her personal assistant, Dirk Breytenbach, said she would be unavailable for the next few weeks.
However, Stratford informed the inquiry on Monday that Kölsch and the honorary consul for the Seychelles in South Africa, Malcolm Gessler, had shared $300 000 of an “introductory fee” after Pinnacle Point won the golf course-development tender. This accounted for the R50000 payments to Kölsch’s account each month over a period between 2007 and 2009, he said.
Gessler responded to a query by the M&G, emailed to Kölsch at her consulate address, about the so-called introductory fee paid to them by Pinnacle Point.
“The Pinnacle Point records reflect that other than an initial introduction of Pinnacle Point to the Seychelles government in my capacity as honorary consul, an initial legal opinion sought as an attorney, the further conduct of the matter was dealt with exclusively through the office of the Seychelles consul general, Mrs M Kölsch,” Gessler wrote.
“This office had no further role or input in the matter.”
Pinnacle Point’s directors, who have been following the inquiry from the start, on Wednesday expressed their anger about the direction the inquiry was taking. They claimed the furore about Kölsch’s email was part of a strategy to prove reckless trading on their part and questioned the reason why Absa officials were not being called to the witness stand.
The directors have attributed the collapse of the group to the fact that they were unable to access credit when Absa Bank acquired a 27% interest in Pinnacle Point because of a single-stock futures debacle in 2008, itself the subject of litigation between Absa and Nedbank.
Absa’s head of group legal, Marthinus van Rensburg, has told the M&G that Absa denies these claims and will deal with these issues in the course of litigation.
Leonard Katz, a director of law firm Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs that is running the inquiry, has told the M&G it is hoping to recover R150-million from an insurance policy taken out by the group to protect its directors and officers. The main aim was pecuniary recovery for shareholders and creditors, he said.
Tony Canny of law firm Eversheds, an attorney representing the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union and the Trilinear Empowerment Trust, the vehicle used to invest clothing workers’ pension funds, has also called for bank officials to be called as witnesses.
More than R250-million of workers’ pension fund money was lost in the listed Pinnacle Point group and bank officials had to be called to account at the inquiry, said Canny.