90 Coin-It investors claim they are owed R10-million
Mr de Beer said he was of the view the claims against the company were not valid.
Investors into Coin-It are trying to recover about R10-million allegedly owed to them by the company.
Ninety brought an urgent application to the Pietermaritzburg High Court yesterday, seeking that Coin-It be provisionally liquidated. No order was granted and the matter has been adjourned to December 4, to allow for more parties to intervene and court papers to be filed.
The Witness in Pietermaritzburg reported that investor, Wiseman Linda, said in an affidavit there were three reasons for wanting the company liquidated: it is unable to pay its debts and is commercially insolvent; its business and operations are illegal and; the company appeared to have been used as a ‘vehicle for a financial scam or illegal scheme’.
Mr Linda said he applied to buy a Tractor-Loader-Backhoe (TLB) through Coin-It paid a deposit of R130 000 in February.
He added that according to his agreement with Coin-It, he owed R10 720 per month over 20 months, and the company agreed to pay him R23 500 per month. From this, his instalment would be deducted to leave him a remainder of R12 779.
From Mr Linda’s experience, everything seemed to be going according to plan until June, when he stopped receiving payment.
He said the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) then published a statement in August, revealing it was investigating the company’s activities.
Director of Coin-it, Michael Andrew Anthony de Beer [named as per the court papers] said in reply he could not ‘deal with everything’ in Mr Linda’s affidavit, because he had not been given enough time. Also, since documents and computer systems were seized by the FSCA, he had limited information available on the people who had brought the application forward.
Nonetheless, Mr de Beer said he was of the view the claims against the company were not valid. He also stated Coin-It was no longer being investigated by the FSCA, but by the Commercial Crimes Unit, and denied the company was commercially insolvent.
“Due to a complaint to the FSCA, the company’s assets were seized which has no bearing on the company’s solvency.”
Mr de Beer concluded by saying the company would honour all payments which may become due to any party, in due course. Certain parties had not received payment before the seizure by the FSCA took place, which he attributed to a large number of unauthorised parties being placed on the company’s database.
RELATED STORY: Coin-It offices closed pending FSCA probe
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