NEWSPAPER'S EMBARRASSING LESSON AFTER SLANDERING ENGEN

Dear Newspaper Readers,

          Those in charge of advertising at the Northern KwaZulu-Natal Courier must surely be regretting it now.

          The paper’s greed was such that it accepted feloniously obtained money from people it knew were crooks. It had first hand knowledge of this because it had carried not one exposé of the Coin-It and CommEx ponzi schemes, but three in quick succession.

          Then, on the face of it just to make money, it accepted a half page advertorial written by the promoters of these schemes that did nothing else but extol the charitable work Coin-It had been doing around Dundee in KwaZulu-Natal where these con-artists are based.

          At the bottom of this notorious puff for Coin-It the promoters included colour logos of what a reader could only conclude were businesses own by members of the De Beer family, the people behind these ponzi schemes. One was for Engen the R70 000-million a year South African oil company that was voted South Africa’s Favourite Petrol Station this year for the ninth consecutive time in the Sunday Times’ annual Top Brands Awards.

          Hardly a company you would expect to be associated with these Dundee crooks. So I sent an email to Yussa Hassan Engen’s Chief Executive asking him if he was happy to have Engen’s name linked to the De Beer family and their ponzi scheme rackets. Shortly afterwards I got the following reply from Gavin Smith Engen’s External Communications manager.

          It was clear that Engen had been seriously libeled by the compilers of this advertorial and the Courier for printing it. They were very lucky that Engen was evidently not interested in taking it any further.

          But it shows how dicey it is for a newspaper to print something like this, especially when it comes from known swindlers.(Newspaper behaving badly)

          Meanwhile activist Rowena James quit as the Administrator of the Facebook group she started to try and nail those responsible for these ponzi schemes.

          “I actually feel I have done all I can,” she told me. “So there it is the activist has hung up her hat. Our advocate failed to get an urgent order to liquidate Coin-It because the company suddenly found 28 investors who had been paid every month.”

          This is just a token amount among what is said to be 27 000 people who put their faith in Coin-It for a better life only to find it has now been closed by the authorities.

“So they are opposing the order.” Rowena continued. “We go back to court on 4^th December.
“I still have not heard from the Hawks. I did however email Gerrie Nel’s office. I got a reply and apparently the Commercial Crimes Unit; Asset Forfeiture Unit and the National Prosecuting Authority are all working on this case. I was told to just cooperate with them.” 

          A day later Rowena had changed her mind. “I have been dragged back into the fold due to some new developments,” she said. “A number of investors asked me not to hang up my boxing gloves just yet.

          “Last night a man phoned me and told me he had been a policeman for 30 years. He asked me not to stop as he said I was doing a sterling job. He is from Pietermaritzburg and undertook to visit Sgt. Zuma (the member of the Hawks dealing with the investigation) and get us some decent feedback.

          “So, I am stepping up my campaign to get investors to make statements to Sgt. Zuma and we are doing all we can to cooperate, despite the fact that my statement was leaked.”

          She added that some investors had staged a sit-in outside Coin-It’s premises and had refused to leave until they get paid. (Rowena James gets death threat)

          It was very brave of a small community newspaper like the Courier (Readership of 15 000 around Dundee with a weekly distribution of 4 500 papers) to expose the shenanigans of these ponzi schemes that have millions to spend on legal actions, but then they spoilt it all by taking that advertorial. I gathered that the Editor Terry Worley had no say in the matter as so often happens on newspapers when money making advertising is concerned.

          Regards

          Jon, the Consumer Watchdog you can count on.

P.S. I didn’t go any further with my investigation into the logos of the businesses that appeared in the advertorial as I felt that Engen was the most important one.

   

ANTI-PONZI SCHEME ACTIVIST ROWENA JAMES HAS RECEIVED A DEATH THREAT

Dear Readers,

          As if a death threat was not enough Rowena James has also been maliciously maligned on Facebook. In addition she says she has evidence that indicates that the statement she gave to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (The Hawks) was leaked to the very people she is complaining about.

          All this is because this 51 year old divorcee has been extolling the aims of a pack of 400 people that is growing daily determined to hunt down Malcolm De Beer the master mind behind the Coin-It and CommEx ponzi schemes. Coin-It alone is estimated to have taken 27 000 people for something like R2.5 billion.

          Rowena herself was a victim of Coin-It, although her R60 000 loss was perhaps one of the smallest amounts among this huge number of people, who put their faith in Coin-It before it was closed by the Financial Service Conduct Authority (FSCA).

          She antagonised the Dundee, KwaZule-Natal promoters when she started an on-line Facebook Group headed: Coin-It and CommEx – The Truth. This was to encourage investors to co-operate with the Hawks investigators brought in by the FSCA.

          “I believe what really sent them over the edge was the action FSCA took and the serving of papers on Malcolm to appear in the Pietermaritzburg High court this week,” she told me.

          “Our group have each put in R350 to employ a firm of attorneys and the advocate they have appointed will be making an application to liquidated Coin-It in the hope that we can recover money for the investors. Many pensions, retrenchment packages and life savings have gone, not to mention the money from those who took personal loans to finance their investments.

          “They are from all over the country, mostly from KwaZulu-Natal with some from the Western and Eastern Cape and Polokwane.”

          In a press release issue by the FSCA to update Coin-It investors it stated that it had become aware that Coin-It was trying to get its investors to have their contracts transferred to other associated companies.

          It warned them not to enter into any financial arrangements with unauthorised entities associated with Coin-It.

          The FSCA launched an investigation in August into Coin-It and CommEx Minerals for suspected breaches of financial sector laws. This involved a search and seizure operation of the Dundee premises of these firms followed by the opening of a case with the Hawks for further investigation. The Asset Forfeiture Unit had also obtained a preservation order against bank accounts linked to the parties being investigated.

          “Neither Coin-It or CommEx nor its directors Mr Michael Andrew Anthony de Beer (Coin-It) and Mrs Patricia Ursula de Beer (CommEx) are licensed to conduct any financial services or to receive deposits from the public,” the statement added. Mrs Patricia Ursula De Beer is the ex-wife of Malcolm Henry de Beer, the founder of Coin-It and still the person running the its day to day operations. 

                                 (Heartless Sunday Times)                    

          Some weeks ago on Facebook Sibonelo Khulu Coin-It’s Brand manager described Rowena as a “racist who is scavenging on black people’s bloods.” He maintained that being “fully paid up after her 3 year circle with Coin-It she is busy misleading them with all sorts of nonsensical updates so they won’t become rich like herself.” He blamed her for complaining to the FSCA and called her “a heartless racist.”

          In her reply on Facebook Rowena included copies of the contracts for the two trucks she bought and stated that she would be happy to receive a R400 000 cash settlement for them as she suspected they did not exist.

          “The person who originated the complaint to FSCA was from Cape Town,” she continued. “I’m from Durban so that’s yet another thumb suck you have spread. Like a good citizen I have given the FSCA and the Hawks my full cooperation.

          “Mr Khulu you obviously know that these investors you have successfully misled and still are misleading will soon be locking you away as you have a lot to answer for.”

          She told me she had been alarmed on the evening of 24 October when she discovered that Sibonelo, known as Khulu the Man on social media, had distributed her home address with two voice notes in Zulu. The first one was from an unknown woman who asked for her address as she knew people in Durban who wanted to teach Rowena a lesson. And the second one was death threat.

          “Almost as alarming was the fact that he was distributing copies of the statement I made to the Commercial Crime Unit in Durban,” she said.

          She has lodged a complaint about this to the prosecuting authorities in Pietermaritzburg and it has been passed to the Serious Commercial Crimes Unit.

          “It’s clear that this case has now been compromised and my life is in danger.” she stated.

          Attached to her complaint were screen shots of what she says were copies of her statement that Khulu distributed on social media.

          Rowena was not the originator of the group that wants to liquidate Coin-It. She heard about it on WhatsApp and decided to join it.

          Regards,

          Jon, a Consumer Watchdog who believes not enough is being done by our enforcement agencies to ensure that the crooks behind these ponzi schemes end up in jail for a long time. And if you can’t trust the police, even at the highest level, it becomes very scary.

P.S. Rowena is to be congratulated for really sticking her neck out by taking a stand against these shysters, especially in the social media jungle where just about anything goes. Too many people complain bitterly about something, but when the time comes to stand up to be counted they are nowhere to be found.

(Feisty Rowena James)

P.P.S. The money Coin-It investors paid was supposed to have bought them trucks to earn them an impressive return on their investments, but all the indications were that these didn’t exist. CommEx was structured in much the same way only this time it involved the buying and selling of various minerals. 

     

NEWSPAPER BEHAVING BADLY - THE COURIER EXPOSES PONZI SCHEMES & THEN TAKES THEIR TAINTED MONEY FOR AN ADVERTORIAL

Dear Readers,

How is this for dubious newspaper morality? The Northern KwaZulu-Natal Courier, a community paper in the Caxton Group carried three exposés about the activities of members of the De Beer family’s Ponzi businesses Coin-It Trading and CommEx Minerals.

          The first one early last September was headed Drama unfolds as Coin-It and  Commex Minerals are raided. It was about how the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) had launched an investigation into these two companies.

          Its next report was headlined: Investment scheme maintains everyone will get paid.

          Then on September 18 it announced: Coin offices closed pending FSCA probe. Readers were told that it was too early to say what will happen to investors in Coin-It and CommEx Minerals following the raid by the FSCA.

          Soon afterwards the paper, which has a weekly free distribution of 15 000 copies in the coal mining town of Dundee (Population 34 000), carried the half page, controversial paid advertorial headed Coin-It Traders Speak Out! It would have earned the publication something like R7 000. 

This is how the Courier coined it & how
the advertorial began

          It was a huge puff extolling the good deeds these Ponzi scheme promoters had done for the people of the area as if their kind of business was perfectly acceptable.

          After weeks of controversy, Coin-It Trading appeals to the community to not forget all the good it has and is still doing, the ad began

          Speaking to the Courier, it went on, Coin-It’s representative, Peter Estrice said, “The public was not informed in the past on the big scope of activities that were taking place and the participation of social activities carried out by Coin-It.”

          Coin-It described itself as a huge part of the Dundee community and as such had aided many people.

Peter Estrice

          He claimed that when “last year’s terrible floods took away five lives, including three children, from a family in Sibongile (a Dundee township) Coin-It was there. We played a big role in helping the needy and even went to the extent of repairing some churches that were damaged.”

           Small businesses that relied on Coin-It had been enormously affected.

          “Other companies have also lost revenue when we stopped our service, such as the buying of trucks,” Estrice maintained. “Our hardware companies can no longer continue with business as everything has come to a standstill. Coin-It has donated signage to schools in the area and will continue to assist schools in other districts in the future.”

          Referring to the pending FSCA investigation Estrice stated: “As much as Coin-It is taking a beating it is also affecting our small businesses and individuals who relied on Coin-It. Our clients come from different backgrounds such as government officials, working class and the unemployed and Coin-It takes care of them.” He promised that they would have a "ceremony with our clients once everything had been sorted." 

          The advertorial concluded with the logos of the businesses the De Beer family evidently have an interest in.  

          In an email to the Courier’s Editor Terry Worley I asked how his paper could expose the Coin-It Ponzi scheme and then take this advertorial that promotes it.

          “The Courier has just gone one better than the Sunday Times for appalling double standards just to make money,” I told him. "You have also completely blown your belief in the 'community newspaper being the trustworthy watchdog of the community.'”

          I was referring to the fact the Sunday Times carried two advertising inserts from CommEx and My House, another Ponzi scheme promoted by the same people, a few days after its sister publication had revealed that Coin-It and CommEx had been raided by the FSCA.  (Heartless Sunday Times)

          Worley told me to refer to their advertising department. In a subsequent email he started that the Hawks investigation appeared to be stagnating, but they were following up because more investors who had not received their money still needed to make statements.

          “We are told not even 15 have made statements and there are apparently 27 000,” he added.

          I sent a similar email to Rod Skinner, Caxton’s Regional Editor for the area that includes the Courier asking why that controversial advertorial was accepted. “Surely that was the antithesis of good newspaper ethics,” I told him. “The message it sent was that your paper only cares about making money, not ethical behaviour.”

          He replied saying: “In fairness we had to give Coin-It a right of reply. They however insisted they wanted to reply in this manner. It is not for us to dictate how they as a company wish to exercise their right of reply.

          “Nothing in the advertorial solicits business for the scheme. Our investigative team is still investigating it along with several others in Northern KZN.”
                                     *     *     *

          Regards

          Jon, a Consumer Watchdog and the Poor Man’s Press Ombudsman.

P.S. The Caxton Group is no stranger to accepting adverts just to make money regardless of the morality of what it is doing. For years The Citizen, its daily paper that circulates mainly in Gauteng has been carrying Herbalist ads, when even one of its editors conceded to me that they are not believable.  Full of people claiming to be doctors, professors and the like when they are clearly nothing of the kind they offer services like “100% win lotto” and “manhood enlargement.” These are obviously nothing else but lies. (Lies,lies and more lies)

P.P.S. An advertorial is an advertisement written in the same style as a newspaper article. So it’s not hard to guess why the Ponzi promoters wanted their ad in this form.