Putting on the dog: The charismatic and charming Johan Carel Fouche has allegedly conned tens of people out of their money.
A former KwaZulu-Natal magistrate, dubbed the Casanova fraudster for his smooth demeanour, jailed for 70 counts of fraud, is allegedly on the prowl again. He seems to have found up to 30 new victims, whom he has cheated out of hundreds of thousands of rand.
Johan Carel Fouche is the chief operating officer of Asiphakame Financial Services, which he runs with chief operating officer Leonie Dempers. The firm describes itself as “a complete financial wellness partner to our clients” and promises to help over-indebted consumers with services that include “loan sourcing”, “credit record rehabilitation”, “bond originating” and “bond rescue”.
Asiphakame advertises on its website that its offering includes “helping people whose bonds are already in distress; often to the point of stopping the execution sale on the day of the auction and saving our client’s house”.
The promise rings hollow for many of Asiphakame’s clients, who have opened, or attempted to open, fraud cases against Fouche but have been told to sue him in the civil courts because they willingly parted with their cash.
Fouche and Dempers have allegedly preyed on numerous desperate people. A favoured scheme is to withdraw the equity out of their properties.
These homeowners would also be devastated to learn that, according to an interview on SA Bros on Facebook, Asiphakame gave R25 000 in prize money to the Beefstock RockFest earlier this month.
Asked to comment about the complaints and fraud cases clients have successfully opened against them, Fouche and Dempers claim these are civil matters, saying the people involved had signed agreements and later changed their minds.
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) in the Western Cape and police in Gauteng have confirmed they are investigating six fraud cases against Fouche and Dempers.
One alleged victim is vehicle buyer Gerhard van Deventer, who alleges Fouche conned him out of R10 230 for the deposit on the vehicle.
Homeowners Chevon and Hubert Heydenrych are also alleged victims of the pair.
The Heydenrychs maintain that they lost more than R600 000 in one of Fouche’s schemes, while in another apparent scam, UK citizen Dawn Taylor paid Fouche R12 500, believing he was an attorney who could assist with a visa application.
Several homeowners who were in financial distress claim Fouche and Dempers conned them of cash and sold their homes to “investors” in elaborate schemes.
The pair would open a business in the name of both the indebted homeowner victim and an investor who would rent the property to the homeowner for seven years.
The victims were told they would have the option to buy it back. The scheme led to the property being legally transferred into the names of the investors, with fresh bond accounts in their names.
The victim would pay rent into one of Fouche’s business accounts and he was supposed to pay the rent to the investor, who would pay the new bond every month.
However, homeowners and investors alike soon realised, when Fouche failed to pay over the funds and the bond accounts fell into arrears, that the scheme had collapsed.
Elzabe Senekal, a debt-stressed homeowner, and Kyle Swart, the investor who bought her home, feel equally cheated by the scheme.
Senekal paid R264 000 into the bank account of one of Fouche’s businesses, called Imali, after he promised her an 18% return on her investment, saying if she battled to pay rent for the property, she could dip into the fund.
“I’ve asked him and asked him and asked him, ‘Where is my money?’ They told me it is invested.
“Obviously, they took the money. They told me on the bond bridging day they would invest the money and ‘you will get interest on your property and it will go into a PTY limited and you will be a part of it’.
“They just avoid calls and calls and calls … I am sitting in a bad situation. I don’t have words anymore. They made a fool of me,” Senekal said.
“If you invested, pay back my money — it’s as easy as that — so I can bring the bond up to date. It’s scary what they have done to me.”
Senekal said Fouche had raised several charges against the R264 000, to which she had agreed, including a sum of R40 000 he paid Swart to enter the scheme to buy the house in July last year.
Fouche returned R115 000 to her in September last year but she has not been able to get the balance back.
“Kyle Swart bought my property; it is under his name. We paid until December and then they [Fouche and his firm] did not pay the money over into the bond account.
“All I want is my money back,” Senekal said.
Swart said his bond fell into arrears after Fouche failed to pay Senekal’s rent payment into the account. He managed to track down Senekal on Facebook, as they had not met or even spoken when the sale was drawn up, to make a plan to pay the bond independently of Fouche.
Fortunately for Senekal, Swart has no intention of selling the house, although he is struggling to help her make payments on the bond, after his business ran into difficulty.
“They said Elzabe had R1 900 debt to pay every month and, with the house sale, it would bring it down and it would be paid off in five years.
“The idea was that a business would be opened and an agreement pulled up between the buyer and seller. There would be equal ownership in the business and the house would sit (as an asset) in the business and, once the seller has repaid the house to the buyer, then the seller resigns as a director and gets the house,” Swart explained.
However, Swart confirmed that Fouche had not made the bond repayments from around November, after which he realised something was horribly wrong, and he had to make a plan with the bank to repay the arrears.
“Everything that Johan and Leonie did was bullshit, if I am dead honest with you.
“The one that stands to lose the most in all of this is Elzabe, with the amount of money lost, and we stand to be sequestrated. There is nothing really protecting her at this stage.
“I don’t want to just sell this house from under her but, even if we do sell, if any funds come out of the sale, everything will go to her,” Swart said.
Senekal said she had tried repeatedly to open a case at the Pretoria North police station but officers had said it was a civil matter.
“I am going there … to try and open a case again,” Senekal said.
The Heydenrychs, on the other hand, managed to open a case of fraud against Fouche after they entered into a business financial scheme with him. Hubert Heydenrych said he had initially paid the smooth-talking Fouche R8 000 to handle a liquor licence application in 2018. The licence never materialised.
“He is very charismatic, open and friendly, extremely clever and intelligent and extremely pleasant. Like a magnet, he pulls you in, man or woman. He is welcoming and warm,” Heydenrych said.
Fouche had also promised to set his wife up in a restaurant business and to assist the couple with bridging finance for the deal.
“I took R600 000 out of my bond. I lent him R35 000 for something else and then had to pay for the bridging finance. He took over R750 000 from us. I sold the house just to get out of it but I lost more than R700 000,” Heydenrych said.
Taylor said she had been referred to Fouche as “an advocate and a former magistrate” who could help her apply for her South African visa and temporary residence permit. She had lived in the country for 32 years as a temporary resident after marrying a South African.
“I applied for permanent residency in 1993 but my file got lost and I was living on temporary residency visas until 2001 when my British passport got stolen.
“The South African embassy would not help me without the passport, so I was pushed from pillar to post, ” she said.
Taylor met Fouche in July last year when he promised he would help her get her visa extended and her permanent residence granted. After she had paid him R12 500, the excuses started.
“He kept saying, ‘Next week it will be ready,’ then apparently the people who were dealing with my passport died of Covid and then his trailer had broken down along the road and his father died in Free State,” Taylor said.
Fouche did not refund her or assist her with the visa application. After paying another service provider R20 000 to help her with an appeal to the department of home affairs, she was forced to leave the country.
“It’s a total mess. I had to leave my husband, my children and grandchildren behind,” Taylor said.
She said police at the Pretoria North police station declined to open a criminal case.
However, vehicle buyer Van Deventer did manage to open a case of fraud against Fouche after he transferred a deposit of R10 230 into his bank account to buy a car from him on 29 January 2020.
“Johan arranged with me that he will fly me to Lanseria Airport, where the vehicle will be handed over. I received a WhatsApp message from Johan informing me that my vehicle is not ready because the tracker device must still be installed.
“Johan then informed me again that my vehicle would be ready for pick-up at the airport. Once again, it was not the case.
“I then started putting pressure on Johan to get my money back … Johan made various promises that my money will be in my account. Every day a different story and excuse,” he said.
Van Deventer said in an affidavit he believed Fouche intended to defraud him “from day one when we started this deal”.
“I want prosecution in this matter and request that the suspect be brought to trial,” he said. This is the appeal from every person who has opened or attempted to open cases against Fouche.
The Mail & Guardian has established that at least six fraud cases have been opened against Fouche, in the Western Cape and Gauteng, among them the Heydenrych and Van Deventer matters.
However, this is probably the tip of the iceberg, as the Mail & Guardian team has a database listing more than 30 alleged victims.
Gauteng police spokesperson Brenda Muridili confirmed that Hydenrych had opened a fraud case at the Wierdabrug police station.
“It is still under investigation. No one has been arrested yet. We cannot name suspects or persons of interest in a case before they appear in court,” Muridili said.
Western Cape Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani confirmed the police were investigating at least five fraud cases against Fouche and Dempers, including Van Deventer’s matter.
“We confirm that all these cases are in our space.
“We know about these mentioned individuals, that the charge against them is fraud, but we are not prepared to release further information pertaining to other questions relating to the nitty-gritty of the investigation,” she said.
Asked to comment on claims that he had presented himself to some victims as an attorney or advocate, Fouche said: “I have never said I’m a registered attorney to anyone. You should maybe learn the difference between attorney, lawyer and legal representative.
“Please refrain from attempting to ellicit [sic] any response from either myself, or Leonie — you know we have a legal representative. I will not henceforth communicate with you in any form.”
Dempers declined to comment, saying via a WhatsApp message (spelling hers): “I will in future not correspond with you via Whatsapp or email. We will henceforce only respond via our inhouse legal representative at a time convenient to him. Please refrain from attempting to silicit responses from either of us in this manner.
“Also, learn the diffence between laywers, advocates, attorneys, and legal representatives.”
Fouche and Dempers have failed to respond to questions from the M&G, despite being given several weeks to do so.
Their attorney, Pieter Smit, called to ask for a further extension, and threatened to interdict the reporters, who relented and gave them more time. However, at the time of publishing, they had not responded to detailed questions.
This story was made possible by the M&G Guardians Project in partnership with the Adamela Trust.
A former KwaZulu-Natal magistrate — dubbed the “Casanova” fraudster — who was jailed for 70 counts of fraud, has allegedly been on the prowl again and found up to 30 new victims, who he defrauded out of hundreds of thousands of rands.
Johan Carel Fouchè is the chief operating officer of Asiphakame Financial Services, which he runs with chief operating officer Leonie Dempers. The firm describes itself as “a complete financial wellness partner to our clients” and promises to help over-indebted consumers with services that include “loan sourcing”, “credit record rehabilitation”, “bond originating” and “bond rescue”.
The company advertises on its website that its offering includes “helping people whose bonds are already in distress; often to the point of stopping the execution sale on the day of the auction and saving our client’s house”.
The promise rings hollow for many of Asiphakame’s clients, who have either opened or attempted to open fraud cases against Fouchè but have been told by the police to sue him in the civil court because they willingly parted with their cash.
Fouchè and Dempers have allegedly preyed on numerous desperate consumers, a favoured scheme being to withdraw the equity out of their properties. These homeowners would also be devastated to learn that according to an interview on SA Bros on Facebook, Asiphakame sponsored R25 000 in prize money for the Beefstock RockFest, last week.
But Fouchè and Dempers disagree. Asked to comment about the complaints and fraud cases that some clients have successfully opened against them, the pair claim these are civil matters, saying the people involved had signed agreements and later changed their minds.
Both the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) in the Western Cape and police in Gauteng have confirmed that they are investigating six fraud cases against Fouchè and Dempers. One such alleged victim is vehicle buyer Gerhard van Deventer, who alleges Fouchè conned him out of R10 230 for the deposit of a vehicle.
Homeowners Chevon and Hubert Heydenrych are also alleged victims of the pair. The Heydenrychs claim that they lost more than R600 000 in one of Fouchè’s schemes, while in another alleged scam, UK national, Dawn Taylor, paid Fouchè R12 500 believing he was an attorney who could assist with a visa application.
Several home owners who were in financial distress have alleged that Fouchè and Dempers conned them of their cash and sold their homes to “investors” in an elaborate scheme.
Alleged modus operandi
Fouchè and Dempers would open a business in the name of both the indebted home owner/victim and an “investor” who would then rent the property to the home owner for seven years.
The victim was told that he or she would then have the option to buy it back. The scheme led to the property being legally transferred into the names of the “investors” with fresh bond accounts in the name of the investors. The home owner/victim would then pay rent to one of Fouchè’s business accounts, and he was then supposed to pay the rent to the investor who would pay the new bond every month.
However, homeowners and investors alike soon realised, when Fouchè failed to pay over the cash and the bond accounts fell into arrears, that the scheme had collapsed.
Elzabe Senekal, a debt stressed homeowner, and Kyle Swart, the “investor” who bought her home, feel equally victimised by the scheme. Senekal paid R264 000 into Fouche’s business bank account, named Imali, after he promised her an 18% return on her investment saying if she battled to pay rent for the property she could dip into the fund.
“I’ve asked him and asked him and asked him where is my money? They told me it is invested. Obviously they took the money. They told me on the bond bridging day they would invest the money and ‘you will get interest on your property and it would go into a PTY limited and you will be a part of it’. They just avoid calls and calls and calls…I am sitting in a bad situation. I don’t have words anymore. They made a fool of me,” Senekal said.
“If you invested, pay back my money, it’s as easy as that so that I can bring the bond up to date. It’s scary what they have done to me.”
Senekal said Fouche had raised several charges against the R264 000 which she had agreed to, including a sum of R40 000 he paid Swart to enter the scheme to buy the house in July 2021. Fouche returned R115 000 to her in September 2021 but she has not been able to get the balance back.
“Kyle Swart bought my property, it is under his name. We paid until December and then they (Fouchè and his firm) did not pay the money over into the Standard bank bond account. All I want is my money back,” Senekal said.
Swart said his bond fell into arrears after Fouche failed to pay Senekal’s rent payment into the bond account. He managed to track down Senekal on Facebook, as they had not met or even spoken when the sale was drawn up, to make a plan to pay the bond independently of Fouchè.
Fortunately for Senekal, Swart has no intention of selling the house, although he is also struggling to help her make payments on the bond account, after his business ran into difficulty.
“They said Elzabe had R1900 debt to pay every month and with the house sale it would bring it down and it would be paid off in five years. The idea was that a business would be opened and an agreement pulled up between the buyer and seller. There would be equal ownership in the business and the house would sit (as an asset) in the business and once the seller has repaid the house to the buyer, then the seller resigns as a director and gets the house,” Swart explained.
However, Swart confirmed that Fouchè did not pay over the bond repayments from around November 2021, after which he realised something was horribly wrong, and that he had to make a plan with the bank to repay the arrears.
“Everything that Johan and Leonie did was bullshit if I am dead honest with you. The one that stands to lose the most in all of this is Elzabe with the amount of money lost and we stand to be sequestrated. There is nothing really protecting her at this stage. I don’t want to just sell this house from under but even if we do sell, if any funds come out of the sale everything will go to her,” Swart said.
Senekal said she had tried repeatedly to open a case at the Pretoria North police station, but officers had declined to do so, saying it was a civil matter.
“I am going there … to try and open a case again,” Senekal said.
The Heydenrychs, on the other hand, managed to open a case of fraud against Fouchè after they fell into a business financial scheme with him. Hubert Heydenrych said he had initially paid the smooth-talking Fouchè R8 000 to handle a liquor licence application in 2018, which never materialised.
“He is very charismatic, open and friendly, extremely clever and intelligent and extremely pleasant – like a magnet he pulls you in, man or woman. He is welcoming and warm,” Heydenrych said, adding that Fouche had also promised to set his wife up in a restaurant business and to assist the couple with bridging finance for the deal.
“I took R600 000 out of my bond. I lent him R35 000 for something else and then had to pay for the bridging finance. He took over R750 000 from us. I sold the house just to get out of it but I lost more than R700 000,” Heydenrych said.
Taylor said she had been referred to Fouchè as “an advocate and a former magistrate” who could help her apply for her SA visa and temporary residence. She said she had lived in the country for 32 years as a temporary resident after marrying a South African.
“I applied for permanent residency in 1993 but my file got lost and I was living on temporary residency visas until 2001 when my British passport got stolen. The SA embassy would not help me without the passport, so I was pushed from pillar to post, ” she said.
She met Fouchè in July 2021 when he promised he would help her get her visa extended and then her permanent residence granted. She paid him R12 500, and the excuses started.
“He kept saying ‘next week it will be ready’, then apparently the people who were dealing with my passport died of Covid, and then his trailer had broken down along the road and his father died in Free State,” Taylor said.
However, Fouchè did not refund her or assist with the visa application, and even after paying another service provider R20 000 to help her with an appeal to the department of home affairs, she was forced to leave the country.
“It’s a total mess. I had to leave my husband, my children and grandchildren behind,” Taylor said.
She said police at the Pretoria North police station declined to open a criminal case.
However, vehicle buyer Van Deventer managed to open up a case of fraud against Fouche after he transferred a deposit of R10 230 into his bank account to buy a 2016 Kia Rio from him on 29 January 2020.
“Johan arranged with me that he will fly me to Lanseria Airport where the vehicle will be handed over. I received a WhatsApp message from Johan informing me that my vehicle is not ready because the tracker device must still be installed. Johan then informed me again that my vehicle would be ready for pick up at the airport. Once again it was not the case. I then started putting pressure on Johan to get my money back … Johan made various promises that my money will be in my account. Every day a different story and excuse,” he said.
He said in an affidavit that he believed Fouche intended to defraud him “from day one when we started this deal”.
“I want prosecution in this matter and request that the suspect be brought to trial,” Van Deventer said.
This is the appeal from every person who has opened or attempted to open cases against Fouchè in recent years.
The Mail & Guardian has established that at least six fraud cases have been opened against Fouchè in the Western Cape and Gauteng, and among these are Hydenrych and Van Deventer matters. However, this is likely just the tip of the iceberg, as the M&G team has a database listing more than 30 alleged victims.
Gauteng South African Police Service spokesperson Brenda Muridili confirmed that Hydenrych had opened a fraud case at the Wierdabrug police station.
“It is still under investigation. No one has been arrested yet. We cannot name suspects or persons of interest in a case before they appear in court,” Muridili said.
Western Cape Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani confirmed that the police are investigating at least five fraud cases against Fouchè and Dempers, including Van Deventer’s matter.
“We confirm that all these cases are in our space. We know about these mentioned individuals that the charges against them is fraud but we are not prepared to release further information pertaining to other questions relating to the nitty gritty of the investigation,” she said.
Asked to comment on claims that he had presented himself to some victims as an attorney or advocate Fouche said: “I have never said I’m a registered attorney to anyone. You should maybe learn the difference between attorney, lawyer, and legal representative. Please refrain from attempting to ellicit (SIC) any response from either myself, or Leonie – you know we have a legal representative. I will not henceforth communicate with you in any form.”
Dempers declined to comment saying via a WhatsApp message: “I will in future not correspond with you via Whatsapp or email. We will henceforce (sic) only respond via our inhouse legal representative at a time convenient to him. Please refrain from attempting to silicit (sic) responses from either of us in this manner. Also, learn the diffence (sic) between laywers (sic), dvocates, attorneys, and legal representatives.”
In all, Fouche and Dempers have missed several weeks’ deadline, extended once, to respond to questions from the M&G. Their attorney Pieter Smit called and asked for a further extension and then threatened to interdict the reporters, who relented and gave them more time. However, at the time of publishing, they had not responded to detailed questions. Fouche and Dempers’ responded to additional follow up questions by saying they would only communicate through their attorney.
This story was made possible by the M&G Guardians Project in partnership with the Adamela Trust.
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