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HELPED INVESTOR: Noluntu Bam

THE COST of living continues to rise and we barely make ends meet, so investing is not a priority for many people .

But consumers who are smart and save and then invest their hard-earned money expect to benefit from their investments.

Grace Mushwana regrets having invested her money with Sharemax Investments.

This real estate property investment company engages in renting, operating and managing commercial properties for shops and offices.

It now operates as a subsidiary of Realcor Holdings.

Mushwana said she was told that the company was legitimate and when an agent, Dion Wentel, approached her in 2006 she invested R200,000 with Sharemax Investments.

She said Wentel advised her to invest her money in their property division.

The investment was for a period of five years and was to mature in March 2011, she said.

"But this did not happen. I did not even receive a call to inform me of developments," Mushwana said.

Then she was advised to reinvest her money for a further three years, but she refused to do so, Mushwana said.

She said she later found out that there was a court order in which Sharemax Investments was ordered to pay out investors.

"Instead they are sending me up and down," she said.

Sowetan has tried to get comment from the company since last month, without luck.

It is essential for consumers to invest money with reputable and long-standing financial institutions because in the event of there being any problems, consumers will not lose their money.

For example, the Financial Advisory Intermediate Services (Fais) ombudsman, Noluntu Bam, recently ordered Standard Bank to refund a consumer who had been defrauded by an employee of the bank.

Nelson Tshitema, of Mapetla, Soweto, was defrauded of R400,000 under the pretext that his nest egg was being moved to a better performing investment.

Tshitema said the problem started after he received a phone call from a financial adviser from the bank five years ago.

The bank employee, Lazarus Mocwiri, and a Liberty Life financial consultant, Sipho Dlamini, invited Tshitema to Standard Bank's Small Street branch in Johannesburg, and advised him to move his money to another investment.

He said he valued their expertise because he had previously dealt with them, so he took their advice.

"I agreed because I trusted the two gentlemen from the bank. I had a debit order for R25,000 to Unit Trust-Stanbil.

They suggested that I cancel it and invest the money with Liberty Life for five years.

They also advised me to invest R600,000 with Discovery Life for five years and R400,000 in gold shares for a year," Tshitema said.

Given that the Standard Bank employee had asked him to go to the branch to discuss the matter,Tshitema believed it was an investment product of Standard Bank.

Also, the fact that Mocwiri was employed by Standard Bank gave Tshitema the impression that he was acting on behalf of the bank.

Unbeknown to Tshitema, he became a victim of a fraudulent scheme devised by an employee of the bank.

Tshitema became concerned when he realised he was not getting any information from the bank about his Growth Coin investment.

It later transpired that Tshitema's money was invested in a company belonging to Mocwiri and Dlamini and that all his money had been used.

Bam has now brought a smile to the investor's face.

She has ordered Standard Bank to refund Tshitema the R400,000, with interest, that was fraudulently transferred into Mocwiri's account.

In determining Tshitema's case, Bam said Standard Bank had failed to put in place adequate systems to prevent the fraud by its employees as required by Fais' general code of conduct.

This code states that the provider must at all times have and effectively employ the resources, procedures and appropriate technological systems that can reasonably be expected to eliminate as far as possible, the risk that clients, products suppliers and other providers or representative, will suffer financial loss through theft, fraud or other dishonest acts, poor administration, negligence, professional misconduct or culpable omission.

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Sun May 19 22:59:00 SAST 2013 ::

May 23, 2012

ayobaness

tlala e dirang batho mara yeh?
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May 23, 2012

tpaz

2nd identical case I am reading about fake agents using Standard Bank....
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May 23, 2012

Pointman

Sharemax paid the brokers 6% commission - which was the big draw. The consultants placed peoples money with Sharemax because of the commission and not because it would benefit their clients. Still too many cowboys (and cowgirls) in the industry.

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May 23, 2012

wesbuw22

WOW this woman i like her alot. I ma glad the FAIS ACT was passed
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May 23, 2012

Pabi

ayobaness
tlala e dirang batho mara yeh?
**************************************************************
ga se tlala mehabaru fela mo.
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May 23, 2012

SPACEMAN

Dats my boss go after them this is just the beggining we are comin 4 all u fraudelent brokers watch out
Big up Miss Bam
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May 23, 2012

gossipgirl

m sure they started a business nd thought they wud bring it back wen the business grows...xem, tht person was std is probably jobless now nd wil never get anada job at a bank ever again
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May 23, 2012

Chillis

What the heck were these guys thinking? Wonder what they did with that money its obviously not a lot for both them.
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May 23, 2012

MGEEZ

Whilst I applaud Noluntu's good work; I must say to the defraudedand would be investors ignorance is not a virtue. There is so much information available at our finger tips to monitor our investments. The first principle when in comes to investment is education, that way you do not have to trust anybody but yourself and your own judgement (You are basically your own CEO). Stop being lazy, acquire the necessary information pertaining what you want to invest in, i am not suggesting that we should all be sophisticated investors, but get the necessary knowledge and do not be in a hurry and yes trust your instincts (The old adage that if something appears too good to be true, it probably is not true still holds to this day). Happy investing.
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May 23, 2012

SPACEMAN

Mgeez i disagree with you because we work with this cases on daily basis brokers lie through their teeth promising clients the world and some of this clients are rich and illiterate and brokers use big words our black brothers find it difficult to understand to make profit you might even fall prey because even the educated come across such problems.
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