Limpopo teacher scammed out of her savings

A teacher in Limpopo lost her savings after paying money to someone she thought represented Thebe Investment Corporation. Graphic: Lisa Nelson

• A Limpopo former teacher is one of several people taken in by fraudsters claiming to work for Thebe Investment Corporation.
• She paid several hundred thousand rand to Esrome Msindzu, who claimed to work for “Thebe Stock Brokers”.
• But Thebe says he never worked there.
• However he did have an account with Thebe Stockbrokers and the teacher’s money was paid into that account.

A 71-year-old former teacher is one of several people in Limpopo who lost money after putting their savings into what they thought were investment accounts at Thebe Investment Corporation.

The account into which she put her money turned out to be the private account of Esrome Msindzu from Mulamula village. He did not even work for Thebe.

The teacher, who does not want to be named, explained that she was approached by Msindzu in 2014, who claimed to work with Thebe Stockbroking, part of Thebe Investment Corporation. He persuaded her to put several hundred thousand rand in what she thought was an investment fund.

Thebe Investment Corporation was founded in 1992, with as sole shareholder the Batho Batho Trust, a community trust which had Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Beyers Naude as trustees.

The teacher, who retired in 2013, wanted to use part of her pension money to fund her son’s education. She said she had heard that other teachers had invested through Msindzu and had received good returns.

In September 2014, she and her elder sister accompanied Msindzu to her Capitec Bank branch to make the investment. She transferred the money from her Capitec account into an Absa Bank account, with the beneficiary listed as “Thebe Stock Broking”. At the time, she asked Msindzu for an investment contract, which he promised to send once he had it stamped at work. It never materialised.

Early in 2016, the former teacher asked Msindzu for a summary of her investment portfolio, as she wanted to withdraw some funds to pay for her son’s tuition. Msindzu, however, started avoiding her, often turning off his phone or not answering her calls.

According to the former teacher, she considered filing a police report, but others who had invested advised against it, fearing that if Msindzu was arrested, they might lose their money. Msindzu kept assuring them that they would get their money back.

“He made fools of us,” she said.

For the past eight years, the former teacher has made multiple attempts to recover her money from Msindzu. She now believes she will never see her money again.

GroundUp made several attempts to contact Msindzu for comment.

Phone calls from a landline did not go through to his number. Attempts were then made to contact him via WhatsApp.

On Wednesday, 4 September, questions were sent to Msindzu. The message was delivered but not opened. On 5 September, he was asked again via WhatsApp to respond, but he blocked the reporter’s number. A second number was used to try to contact him, and although the message was opened, the number was also blocked. Msindzu then changed his profile picture.

GroundUp sent questions to TSB Securities (formerly Thebe Stockbroking), inquiring about the former teacher’s investment and Msindzu’s role.

In a detailed response, the chief executive officer of TSB Securities, Saleem Symallin, said that Msindzu had never worked for Thebe Investment Corporation or TSB Securities.

“Mr Msindzu did have a client account with TSB Securities under the name of Msikho Property Investment, which was under his control and exclusively used for derivatives trading,” he said. Derivatives are complex financial instruments whose value is derived from underlying assets such as shares or commodities such as gold or copper.

Symallin said the funds deposited by the retired teacher had been deposited with the reference of Msikho Property Investment’s account number. “Accordingly, the funds were credited to the account of Msikho Property Investment, owned by Mr Msindzu. Further derivative trading on this account continued until December 2014, after which the account went dormant,” he said.

“Any transactions, if any, between [the teacher] and Mr Msindzu would have been a matter between the parties, and TSB would not have been privy to those,” he said.

Symallin concluded that it appears Msindzu fraudulently presented himself as a representative or employee of TSB Securities. “In all cases, potential clients deal directly with TSB Securities through our registered offices. Where clients use independent financial advisors to place investment funds with TSB or any other authorised member of the JSE, it is the client’s responsibility to verify that they are dealing with duly authorised financial service providers,” he said.

It is not clear how many other people lost money by investing in what they thought were accounts at Thebe Investment Corporation or one of its companies.

In November last year, Thebe Investment Corporation issued a warning on its LinkedIn page about a scheme operating in the company’s name.

“It has come to our attention that there may be a Ponzi Scheme asking people to invest their hard-earned cash via WhatsApp or other social media platforms. Thebe Investment Corporation does not run any such scheme whatsoever. If you have become a victim of this scheme, kindly contact your nearest law enforcement authorities.” the warning said.

Published with Limpopo Mirror.

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