Below murky circumstances, the FSCA has quietly dropped beforehand imposed penalties in opposition to CBI International Ponzi scammer Coenie Botha.
As per an October seventh filed consent order, the FSCA’s earlier discovering that Coenie Botha (proper) and CBI International violated South Africa’s Banks Act has been put aside.
Circumstances main as much as the submitting of the consent order are unclear. Ditto whether or not any cash modified palms.
The consent order has the FSCA’s case in opposition to Botha and CBI International “remitted to the Monetary Sector Conduct Authority for additional consideration”.
Wanting on the FSCA’s observe document in opposition to MLM Ponzi schemes, that is most likely code for “the case will stay in limbo within the hope everybody forgets about it”.
Circumstances introduced in opposition to MLM Ponzi scammers by the FSCA are important, in that it’s uncommon for the regulator to take motion. Sadly within the few situations the FSCA does hand out punishment, it appears all too straightforward to have these orders reversed.
Mirror Buying and selling Worldwide (MTI) was a $1.7 billion Ponzi scheme that originated in South Africa.
Regardless of being certainly one of South Africa’s largest scams and MTI collapsing 4 years in the past, no person in South Africa has been criminally charged.
After fleeing South Africa, MTI Johannes Steynberg died in Brazil earlier this 12 months. Clynton Marks and Cheri Ward, the suspected homeowners of MTI, stay at massive in South Africa.
After discovering MTI to be an “unlawful operation” in 2020, the FSCA introduced it may positive MTI R100 million in 2021. The positive was then decreased to R50 million, earlier than being dropped altogether in April 2022.
CBI International started as Uhuru Tribe, an MLM crypto Ponzi launched in or round 2020. By March 2022, BehindMLM had tracked 4 Coenia Botha Ponzi collapses.
Whereas CBI International primarily defrauded South Africans, Coenie Botha ran the Ponzi from Namibia. This prompted native legal and civil fraud proceedings.
The final replace on CBI civil fraud proceedings is from July 2023, whereby the Financial institution of Namibia overturned a court docket order directing it to fund CBI International’s fraudulent enterprise operations.
Botha was arrested in March 2024 on CBI International legal costs. Our final replace on these proceedings is from June 2024, whereby Namibian Police rocked as much as court docket solely to disclaim data of the case.
There have been no updates since, suggesting that case can be probably useless within the water.