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/ 1 December 2009
The state has been given leave to appeal a Cape Town magistrate’s decision to grant bail to former Fidentia boss Arthur Brown.
Former Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown was still too ill to appear in court, his attorney told a Cape Town magistrate on Tuesday. The magistrate, Justhree Steyn, was expected to hear a bail application by Brown, recently re-arrested on fresh fraud and theft charges.
The Cape High Court on Monday declared valid a warrant for the re-arrest of Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown on alleged embezzlement charges involving the Antheru Trust. It dismissed with costs Brown’s urgent application for his immediate release from custody. Brown was recently arrested after his wife, Susan, secretly left the country for Australia.
The disbanding of the Scorpions will protect corrupt and criminal politicians from prosecution, the deputy director of Public Prosecutions warned on Thursday. The Directorate of Special Operations, also known as the Scorpions, would lose its ability to independently investigate government officials if it was incorporated into the police, said Billy Downer, SC.
The Scorpions had spoken to the attorney acting for former Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown about a plea agreement, it emerged in the Cape High Court on Wednesday. The revelation came in an application by Brown and his wife, Susan, to have warrants for their arrest obtained by the Scorpions on April 3 declared invalid.
Former Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown is suffering from acute stress and deep depression, according to his psychiatrist. This emerged on Tuesday when Brown appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court in a bid to secure bail after his latest arrest. The application was postponed to Thursday.
A tearful victim of the Fidentia collapse on Monday pleaded with a Cape High Court judge for assistance for her crippled son — and received some, thanks to a generous lawyer. The emotional outburst came during what was expected to be a routine postponement of the bid for final sequestration of former Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown.
An alleged kingpin in the Fidentia asset management scandal, Steven Goodwin, launched an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday to secure his freedom. He asked the court to set aside and declare unconstitutional a request by the Director General of Justice to United States authorities for his provisional arrest.
Fidentia’s J Arthur Brown was currently receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment in a private clinic after allegedly being sexually assaulted by prisoners in a prison vehicle, the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court heard on Monday. Brown was arrested recently on charges of theft, fraud and money laundering.
Fraud suspect J Arthur Brown was allegedly raped in the back of a police van last week, the Sunday Times reported. Brown’s attorney, William Booth, said the former Fidentia boss — accused of theft and fraud involving hundreds of millions of rands — suffered an ”extremely humiliating” sexual assault.
Former Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown was examined by a doctor and a psychiatrist on Wednesday after being beaten up by fellow prisoners, the Times reported on Thursday. Brown’s attorney, William Booth, said his client had been moved to a private clinic in Cape Town on Tuesday.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula on Tuesday gave the assurance that all cases currently under investigation by the Directorate of Special Operations, or Scorpions, will be finalised. ”There is not a single case that was investigated by the Scorpions, which is under investigation now by the Scorpions, that will not be finalised.
The Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday remanded in custody Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown for a week, following his arrest last Friday on charges of fraud, theft and money laundering relating to the company Antheru. The charges involve about R800 000.
The sudden disappearance last month of the wife of Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown had destroyed the good faith between the couple and the Scorpions, the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court heard on Monday. Scorpions senior counsel Bruce Morrison told the court: ”She’s not coming back.”
Fidentia chief executive J Arthur Brown is expected to appear in court in Cape Town on Monday after he was arrested on charges of theft, fraud and money laundering on Friday. He was arrested in Cape Town’s central business district appeared in the district court. The case was postponed to Monday and Brown was to remain in police custody until he appeared in court.
Fidentia chief executive J Arthur Brown has been arrested on charges of theft, fraud and money laundering, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Friday. ”J Arthur Brown was arrested on the strength of a warrant following the investigation that was carried out on a separate leg of the bigger Fidentia investigation,” said NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali.
Fidentia chief executive J Arthur Brown was on Thursday late for a scheduled appearance in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, on charges that include fraud involving the Transport, Education and Training Authority (Teta). In the dock without him were co-accused Dr Piet Bothma, Teta’s chief executive, and Jacobus Theart.
One of the alleged masterminds in the Fidentia scandal was arrested by the FBI in the United States, the National Prosecuting Authority said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Tlali Tlali said Steven William Goodwin was arrested following a request by the Directorate of Special Operations, better known as the Scorpions.
Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown will go on trial in September on fraud and theft charges, the Cape Town Regional Court heard on Monday. Prosecutor Thersia du Toit said the trial had been set down for nine days between September 15 and October 3. Magistrate Wilma van der Merwe postponed the case to May 2.
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/ 13 February 2008
Steve Goodwin, the man who has been described as the real founder of Fidentia, has been named repeatedly in a draft indictment against J Arthur Brown. The 38-page document was handed over by prosecutors this week when Brown and the suspended chief executive of the Transport Education Training Authority, Piet Bothma, appeared briefly in court.
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/ 1 February 2008
The financial director of Fidentia, Graham Maddock, was on Friday effectively jailed for seven years on 54 counts involving fraud, theft, money laundering, contraventions of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act and the reckless or fraudulent conduct of business. Maddock appeared in court in Belville.
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/ 21 January 2008
An application in the Cape High Court on Monday, concerning sequestration proceedings involving Fidentia’s J Arthur Brown and his wife, Susan, was ”an abuse of the judicial system”, Cape High Court Judge Dennis Davis said. In December last year, Judge Davis ordered the provisional sequestration of Brown and his wife’s joint estate.
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/ 21 January 2008
Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown on Monday made his first appearance in the Cape Town Regional Court, where he is to go on trial on two charges of fraud, one of theft and one of contravening the Companies Act. Brown had previously made several appearances in the lower district court.
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/ 7 December 2007
Former Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown and financial director Graham Maddock used R5,5-million in Infinity loyalty-programme funds to pay salaries and other expenses in other Fidentia companies, according to prosecutors. The two men appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
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/ 4 December 2007
The joint estate of former Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown and his wife, Susan, was on Tuesday placed under provisional sequestration by the Cape High Court. This followed an application by the curators of the Fidentia group of companies, who claimed that the Browns owed Fidentia just over R24-million.
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/ 5 November 2007
A television exposé of horrific conditions in South Africa’s prisons has earned Hazel Friedman this year’s prestigious Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award. The national winners in various categories were announced at a ceremony held at Vodaworld in Midrand on Sunday evening.
Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown and financial director Graham Maddock appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. The case was postponed to December 7 for a regional court date and for the state to give the defence teams a charge sheet. The appearance follows their rearrest in August on fresh fraud and theft charges.
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/ 13 September 2007
The Cape High Court-appointed curators of the Fidentia Group have found money stolen from investors who entrusted their savings to companies in the organisation. Co-curator George Papadakis said: ”We know where every cent is and who has got it. Some have offered to repay; others are choosing to fight us.”
Piet Bothma, the suspended chief executive of the Transport Education Training Authority, appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court in connection with the Fidentia saga. It was Bothma’s second court appearance. He was recently arrested as a third suspect in the affair.