Media reports

(Sien Afrikaans teks onder)

In recent newspaper reports arising from the questioning of witnesses in the liquidation of a trust with the name of the Surf Trust, the following allegations, amongst others, were made regarding Treoc Finance – our bond initiation wing:

– That the trustee qualified on an income of R17,000 for bond financing to the value of R2,900,000;

– That I, according to statements made by José Delgado (a former director of Treoc and a trustee of the Surf Trust), encourage members to commit fraud;

– That Treoc applied on the same day to 4 different banks for financing for the Surf Trust, with the intention of misleading the banks, in that each of them would not have been aware of the other applications;

– That if ABSA Bank had been aware of the other applications, they would not have approved the bond of R330,000.

In light of these allegations, I called for further investigation. If they were true, this would be completely in conflict with the “Treoc Way”, as our method is known. Any one of the approximately 17,000 people who have already attended my seminars can testify that I place great emphasis on the fact that you must be able to afford the bonds. I believe that anyone who has had their bonds arranged by Treoc Finance will be able to attest to the fact that a proper affordability analysis is done for the client. Treoc Finance’s analysis instrument is approved by all the big banks; the client declares his financial situation on it, and then signs it.

What bothered me in particular with regard to this specific case was the fact that the client declared his income to Finance by means of an income certificate from his auditor. However, the income did not correspond at all with the income that he apparently later declared to the liquidator after the bank had repossessed his property.

The following facts emerged from the information that Treoc Finance provided to me:

– It was not a bond for which Treoc had applied on behalf of the Surf Trust (and not on behalf of the trustee), but a further advance of R118,000 (and not R330,000) pursuant to a bond for R430,000 that was already registered at that stage;

– The trustee’s income was verified by his auditor as R36,651 (and not R17,000);

– The application for the further advance was accompanied by the trustee’s bank statements and the ABSA Bank form completed by Treoc Finance;

– Treoc Finance fulfilled all of ABSA Bank’s requirements at that stage in all respects (and in no way were any misrepresentations made regarding the trustee’s income and obligations);

– This further advance of R118,000 was the only bond for which we applied on behalf of the trustee that day (and not 3 other bonds at 3 other banks);

– As far as our information goes, the ABSA Bank bond of R430,000 was the only bond registered in the name of the Surf Trust at that stage; and

– Every time that bond financing was applied for for the trust, Treoc Finance was satisfied – on the strength of the income that was verified by the trustee’s auditor – that they were working within the affordability parameters maintained by us, and when things moved too close to these parameters, the trustee was made aware of this.

I don’t want to go into more detail at this stage regarding this specific case, since I have been advised that the information could possibly be presented in court as evidence and I don’t want to interfere with the legal process at all.

And yet something must have gone wrong somewhere, seeing as how the Surf Trust was eventually liquidated. I would very much like to know what it was – as Treoc is not indifferent to the fate of its members and also doesn’t follow any strategy to make any misrepresentations to any financial institutions, I would like to prevent a repeat of the Surf Trust’s fate if possible.

One of the possible reasons for the problems that confronted the Surf Trust came to my attention on 28 January 2010 in Somerset West, at the Treoc seminar that took place that day. By the way, this was one of the biggest seminars ever in the Western Cape. (I wonder whether the newspaper reports had anything to do with that?) One of our long-standing members had attended the seminar again on that day, and afterwards she came and spoke to me. She showed me a document that indicated that one of our former employees, .........................

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