BDO SA says its suspended head of actuarial services, Yashoda Ram, has resigned from the firm, calling into question whether she will continue as the court-appointed provisional curator of underwriter 3Sixty Life.
Ram resigned from BDO SA on April 26, the local unit of the global professional services firm told Business Day in an emailed statement, adding that it subsequently dropped disciplinary proceedings against her over alleged gross misconduct.
3Sixty Life, which is ultimately owned by the investment arm of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), has been implicated in a Deloitte report over a series of questionable transactions linked to the labour union.
While the Prudential Authority (PA) failed in an application earlier this year to have the courts hear its request to have Ram replaced as interim curator on an urgent basis, her resignation from BDO SA raises questions about her continued involvement in the process.
“Yashoda Ram’s employment relationship with BDO has terminated as a result of Ms Ram’s resignation from BDO,” the firm said. “BDO will not proceed with the disciplinary proceedings against Ms Ram. Both BDO and Ms Ram consider the matter closed and no further statements on this will be issued.”
Ram was appointed provisional curator of 3Sixty Life in December 2021 after the PA won an urgent court application to have the underwriter placed into interim curatorship for failing to maintain minimum and solvency capital requirements.
However, the regulator made a surprise about-turn in mid-February when it applied to the high court to have Ram replaced on the grounds that her qualifications had been misrepresented. The regulator argued that Ram did not have a degree in actuarial science and also did not complete the Certified Enterprise Risk Actuary (Cera) course in 2016 as indicated on her resumé, which was attached to its original court application to have 3Sixty Life placed under interim curatorship.
BDO SA, which is providing curatorship services to the PA in the 3Sixty Life matter, then suspended Ram and launched an investigation into how her CV came to be misrepresented. Ram denies altering her CV to misrepresent her qualifications.
While BDO SA said that it was aware that Ram did not hold an actuarial degree when it appointed her, and that she had never claimed to the firm to hold such a degree or any degree, it acknowledged in court papers that her resumé submitted as part of the PA’s original curatorship application was inaccurate.
In an answering affidavit to the PA’s court application to have Ram replaced as provisional curator, BDO SA’s head of financial services, Pierre Jacobs, said her resumé should not have suggested she had completed the Cera qualification and should have made clear that she was a “student member” of the Actuarial Society of SA (Assa).
Student members and technical members of Assa are not actuaries and may not use the title, which is reserved for fellows or associate members. Assa has confirmed to Business Day that only qualified actuaries can hold the Cera qualification.
It emerged in early April that BDO SA had initiated disciplinary action against Ram in March over alleged gross misconduct as a result of breaches of duties and contravention of the firm’s policies. While BDO SA did not elaborate on the nature of the alleged misconduct, court documents posted on the website of the Reserve Bank, under whose authority the PA falls, claimed that Ram had leaked confidential documents related to the 3Sixty Life matter to a journalist at amaBhungane.
Affidavits filed by colleagues at BDO SA also alleged that Ram had locked out members of the firm’s support team from the 3Sixty Life Vox email archive system. These members were part of the BDO team that was meant to assist her in the 3Sixty Life curatorship.
While 3Sixty Life has argued it should never have been placed into interim curatorship, the underwriter has been implicated in a Deloitte report for questionable transactions, including a R40,000 payment for the birthday party of Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim.
Business Day spoke to Ram and her legal representative on Wednesday and while they confirmed that she had resigned from BDO SA, they declined to comment on whether she would continue as the provisional curator of 3Sixty Life.
However, the PA told Business Day that Ram had also attempted to resign as interim curator of 3Sixty Life, but was advised by the regulator’s legal team that this was not possible without the consent of the court that appointed her.
“Ms Ram is legally still obliged to fulfil her duties as curator up until such a time that she is removed by a court. We are engaging our attorneys to consider the way forward in the interest of the 3Sixty Life policyholders,” the regulator told Business Day.
BDO SA declined to comment beyond its statement on Ram’s resignation.
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