The liquidator of the defunct VBS Mutual Bank, which went under after it became a playground for politicians and their associates, has paid R458m to the bank’s creditors, including municipalities that unlawfully invested money in the bank.
The payments, described as dividends, mark the second time the liquidator has paid out since he took over the bank’s affairs, after payments of R159m in 2022 — amounting to 7c in the rand to proven concurrent creditors.
Anoosh Rooplal, who is on the hunt for more cash looted from the bank, said the R458m constitutes 20c in the rand.
About R291m of the amount will be paid to municipalities.
“This is a substantial dividend, and the team is verifying all concurrent creditors’ bank accounts. Payments to all verified concurrent creditors commenced during November 2024 and we anticipate to complete this process by end of January 2025,” Rooplal said.
“We are very pleased with the success that our collection efforts have delivered for creditors, despite that massive fraud and theft of about R2.3bn was perpetrated against this bank. This second dividend distribution brings the current payment to concurrent creditors to R617m,” he said.
“This is a fantastic outcome given the many challenges that the bank faced. Compared to other liquidations, it is not uncommon to have final recoveries of less than 5%. We have left no stone unturned in our recovery efforts and are elated to have distributed about R400m to the municipalities, which is effectively a distribution to the SA taxpayers.”
Terry Motau’s 148-page report — “VBS Mutual Bank: The Great Bank Heist”, released in October 2018 — blew the lid off the looting that characterised the bank, from which nearly R2bn was siphoned in less than five years.
The auditing firm KPMG earlier this year agreed to pay VBS R500m to settle a lawsuit launched by Rooplal.
The liquidators initially wanted nearly R900m from KPMG over shoddy work done in auditing the bank’s books.
One of the auditors involved in looking at VBS’ books has already found former KPMG auditor Dumisani Tshuma guilty of misconduct for failing to disclose his interest in VBS. Tshuma and fellow erstwhile KPMG auditor Sipho Malaba failed to disclose loans held with VBS.
Several masterminds behind the looting of the bank are facing criminal charges, with a few of them having been convicted.
Former chair Tshifhiwa Matodzi, who has admitted to his role in the looting and was sentenced to 15 years in jail, said R1m was paid to former National Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane to turn a blind eye — an allegation he has denied.
Matodzi said the amount was paid to Mogajane to withdraw a circular issued by the Treasury in 2017 warning municipalities that deposits made at a mutual bank contravened municipal finance regulations and were not allowed.
Erstwhile VBS CFO Phillip Truter was a few months ago released from prison on parole after serving three years and six months for corruption in the looting saga, which left pensioners penniless.
The VBS scandal also ensnared former justice minister Thembi Simelane, forcing President Cyril Ramaphosa to remove her from the role, which effectively oversees SA’s criminal justice system, and move her to the department of human settlements.
This after an investigation by the Daily Maverick and News24 revealed she received a R575,600 loan from VBS corruption accused fixer Ralliom Razwinane in 2016.
Rooplal said he expected to make further payments in the future as his team continues to trace and recover the bank’s assets.
“The distribution of the second dividend does not affect the loan account holders, that is, those clients [who] still owe the bank monies, whose contracts remain valid and enforceable,” said Rooplal.
“The liquidation team continues to collect monies due to it, from loan account holders and depend on various legal applications that were initiated in order to recover all monies that are owed to the estate,” he said.
“Loan account holders are urged to continue to pay their monthly instalments. This is required in order to avoid recovery action being taken against default payers.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.