Nico Josea bankruptcy hearing ends

THE financial fate of Nico Josea and his asset-management company, Namangol Investments, is now in the hands of High Court Judge President Petrus Damaseb.

The Judge President on Monday concluded a prolonged hearing of lawyers’ arguments in three cases – which are being heard at the same time – that should determine the immediate financial future of Josea. The hearing ended with the Judge President reserving judgement.In the judgement that he is to give, Judge President Damaseb will have to rule whether to declare Josea and Namangol Investments bankrupt by confirming current provisional orders for the sequestration of Josea’s estate and the liquidation of Namangol.Josea last year emerged as one of the key figures involved in a series of financial transactions that followed on a decision of the Social Security Commission to invest N$30 million through a young and inexperienced asset-management company, Avid Investment Corporation.The SSC is still trying to recover its money, which was supposed to be invested for four months only.Shortly after Avid had received the N$30 million from the SSC, it transferred N$29,5 million of this money to an account of Namangol Investments.According to Josea, who was both the owner and Chief Executive Officer of Namangol Investments, Avid’s de facto CEO, the late Lazarus Kandara, asked him to invest that money on his behalf – not for a four-month period, but for a year.According to Eric Knouwds, the liquidator who was put in charge of Avid when the company was liquidated because of its inability to repay the SSC’s money, Namangol Investments and Josea now still owe Avid that N$29,5 million.A little over a month after he had received the money from Avid and had deposited N$20 million of this into an account of a purported South African financial trader, Alan Rosenberg, Josea received some N$15 million back from Rosenberg.He went on to blow this money in a matter of weeks, lending and giving away millions to friends, relatives and fellow churchgoers.Josea is claiming that Kandara never told him that they were working with money that had come from the SSC.He is further claiming that the N$15 million that he received back from Rosenberg was not actually part of the N$20 million that he had initially sent to Rosenberg to be invested for a year.Instead, he is claiming, the N$15 million was paid to him as damages to compensate him for Rosenberg’s failure to have adhered to their original agreement for the investment.The money that he had received from Avid was set to be repaid by early March this year, when Rosenberg’s investment was set to produce earnings of some N$117 million for him and Namangol, he has also claimed.That big payday has however come and gone, without the promised millions materialising.Josea opposed the bid to sequestrate him and liquidate his company.His case was argued by Johannesburg lawyer Jaco van Rooyen.Andrew Corbett represented liquidator Knouwds during the bankruptcy hearing.The hearing ended with the Judge President reserving judgement.In the judgement that he is to give, Judge President Damaseb will have to rule whether to declare Josea and Namangol Investments bankrupt by confirming current provisional orders for the sequestration of Josea’s estate and the liquidation of Namangol.Josea last year emerged as one of the key figures involved in a series of financial transactions that followed on a decision of the Social Security Commission to invest N$30 million through a young and inexperienced asset-management company, Avid Investment Corporation.The SSC is still trying to recover its money, which was supposed to be invested for four months only.Shortly after Avid had received the N$30 million from the SSC, it transferred N$29,5 million of this money to an account of Namangol Investments.According to Josea, who was both the owner and Chief Executive Officer of Namangol Investments, Avid’s de facto CEO, the late Lazarus Kandara, asked him to invest that money on his behalf – not for a four-month period, but for a year.According to Eric Knouwds, the liquidator who was put in charge of Avid when the company was liquidated because of its inability to repay the SSC’s money, Namangol Investments and Josea now still owe Avid that N$29,5 million.A little over a month after he had received the money from Avid and had deposited N$20 million of this into an account of a purported South African financial trader, Alan Rosenberg, Josea received some N$15 million back from Rosenberg.He went on to blow this money in a matter of weeks, lending and giving away millions to friends, relatives and fellow churchgoers.Josea is claiming that Kandara never told him that they were working with money that had come from the SSC.He is further claiming that the N$15 million that he received back from Rosenberg was not actually part of the N$20 million that he had initially sent to Rosenberg to be invested for a year.Instead, he is claiming, the N$15 million was paid to him as damages to compensate him for Rosenberg’s failure to have adhered to their original agreement for the investment.The money that he had received from Avid was set to be repaid by early March this year, when Rosenberg’s investment was set to produce earnings of some N$117 million for him and Namangol, he has also claimed.That big payday has however come and gone, without the promised millions materialising.Josea opposed the bid to sequestrate him and liquidate his company.His case was argued by Johannesburg lawyer Jaco van Rooyen.Andrew Corbett represented liquidator Knouwds during the bankruptcy hearing.