SA govt looking to steal recovered MTI Ponzi funds
South Africa attempting to regulate MLM Ponzi schemes through a broken liquidation system is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever had to report on.
In the latest show of stunning incompetence, South Africa’s Revenue Service, the country’s tax regulator, is looking to steal the entire balance of recovered funds.
In between not fining Mirror Trading International scammers and continuing to let suspect MTI owners Clynton and Cheri Marks sit on hundreds of millions in stolen funds, the SA govt found time to send MTI’s liquidators a tax bill for R580,441,463.28 ($34.46 million USD).
As Jan Vermeulen from MyBroadband points out;
If collected, the tax would consume nearly all of the money the scheme’s liquidators have recovered to date.
And if you’re thinking surely this can be disputed as we’ve seen with Receiverships in the US, you’d be wrong.
The funds in question were seized as part of civil liquidation proceedings, initiated as a result of Mirror Trading International collapsing. In other words South African authorities had nothing to do with it.
As opposed to the reluctance to regulate MTI or arrest anyone involved, the South African government is lethally efficient at capitalizing on other’s efforts.
SARS said in a letter to the liquidators that they must pay the full amount immediately and may dispute it later.
SARS warned that objections and appeals do not suspend the collectability of the amounts and that it would continue to charge interest.
Right. And arguing with SARS that seized Ponzi funds should go to victims instead of government coffers is what, another five or ten years in court?
After failing to hold anyone accountable or the Marks’ last Ponzi, BTC Global, and then letting Mirror Trading International balloon to $1.8 billion, it was left to Brazilian authorities to arrest Johann Steynberg after the fact.
Steynberg, who worked with the Marks to run MTI, is facing extradition to South Africa. Details of pending criminal charges have not been made public.
Honestly I’m not expecting much. The South African government is looking to seize what has been recovered from MTI, and otherwise sweep the $1.8 billion Ponzi under the rug.
The Marks crime family will be permitted to keep the hundreds of millions they stole, “Johann Steynberg mysteriously disappears following extradition to South Africa”, and that’ll be that.
I find myself in the odd position of rallying against government regulators. Normally I’m explaining to victims of Ponzi schemes how letting justice play out is in there best interests.
With Mirror Trading International and South Africa though there is no justice. Known local perpetrators are protected and, for over two years now, victims have and continue to be failed by a broken regulatory system.
Update 11th May 2023 – MTI’s Liquidators and SARS have settled the tax dispute for R283 million (~$14.9 million USD).
Anybody checked in on communications between SARS and the Marks crime family?
Oh right, can’t rock that boat because reasons.
Personally crossing fingers they’re targeting low hanging fruit first and then targeting the smaller whales for their tax contributions
It’s good they noted one bit there about the management team embezzling funds though:
$1.8 billion USD is 30.3 billion ZAR. The amounts the SA govt is pretending they’re only aware of are a joke.
They know exactly where most of the money is who has it. But the Marks are untouchable because reasons.
Steynberg must have a horrible home life in South Africa. There is no other explanation as to why he would be fighting extradition back.
In SA there are literally hundreds of people called Johan Steynberg, thousands called J Steynberg, etc, (getting a new identity is easy too).
The country is huge and the authorities are absolutely pathetic. His personal security wouldn’t be any more difficult to arrange than it is for a normal white South African.
In SA his biggest headache would be his divorce. He could drag on the criminal proceedings forever living openly.
Twenty-five years later and Tigon still hasn’t been resolved, Leisurenet and Fidentia got the fraudsters slaps on the wrist, Masterbond also.
Sharemax in new form got permission from the courts to reverse scam it’s victims. Oscar Pistorious is due for release soon for crying out loud.
The Ignatovs should come to SA on safari.
There are a significant portion of the skelms in MTI who are not victims. The victims are the old people who have been fleeced of their pensions.
The rest? Opportunistic skelms who most appropriately deserve a tax bill.