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Candice van der Merwe (or Candice-Jean van der Merwe, as some media outlets have referred to her) is back in the news, following a New York Times article about the $16 million gift (at the time, roughly R150 million) she received from the prime minister of Lebanon in 2013.

We have covered the story before, but it’s worth revisiting now that her name is back in the headlines.

That will happen when the New York Times gets stuck in, you see, although last week’s Tax Court case has also played a role.

Titled ‘Lebanon’s Prime Minister Gave $16 Million to South African Model‘, the initial focus is on the actions of the mega-wealthy Saad Hariri, and how the timing of these details isn’t ideal for his cause:

…the revelation in a South African court case this year of the extravagant gifts to a younger model comes during a difficult period for Mr. Hariri, the top Sunni Muslim politician in Lebanon and an American ally.

His business and political empires have fallen on hard times, depriving many employees of their pay. His family’s construction conglomerate, Saudi Oger, ceased operations in 2017, and his media outlets have struggled to pay salaries…

Bilal Hussein/Associated Press

The gifts have no clear tie to Lebanon’s current economic woes and Mr. Hariri [centre’ above], a married father of three, was sufficiently wealthy to have made the payments himself. Forbes magazine estimated his net worth in 2013 at $1.9 billion, thanks largely to business interests he inherited after his father, Rafik Hariri, who also served as prime minister, was assassinated in Beirut in 2005.

He may be struggling now, but he was flush with cash when he was handing out sizeable cash gifts back in the day:

His bank transfers to Ms. van der Merwe were made between his two terms as prime minister, but while he was the head of his political party, the Future Movement. He was 43 at the time of the first transfer, in 2013. He was then running family businesses in construction and other domains and living in France and Saudi Arabia.

Ms. van der Merwe was 20 years old. She had appeared in energy drink promotions and swimwear calendars, but her reported annual income had never exceeded $5,400.

The New York Times also linked to this interview, noting that her interests included “listening to Jack Johnson and Celine Dion, riding Jet Skis and flying helicopters with her father”.

From humble beginnings, her bank account suddenly skyrocketed thanks to a transfer of $15 299 965 from a Lebanese bank, which caught the interest of SARS and Tito Mboweni.

Van Der Merwe has been fighting the taxman ever since:

Ms. van der Merwe insisted the money was a gift, and not taxable according to South African law. In subsequent court cases, she argued the money had been given to her without conditions and identified her benefactor as Mr. Hariri.

“Love you my Saad :),” Ms. van der Merwe wrote in an email to Mr. Hariri in which she provided her bank account details so he could transfer the money, telling him it was so she could buy property.

Looks like Hariri wanted to ensure she travelled in style, too:

During a trip in March 2013, she said, she told friends that her “dream car” was the Audi R8. After she returned home, she had an accident that totaled her car and cracked her cellphone screen.

A car dealer soon called her to pick up a new Audi R8 Spyder, which had been paid for and registered in her name. She also received two new cellphones, including one with international roaming, and a Land Rover Evoque.

The two vehicles were worth more than $250,000, a sum that was added to her tax bill. Her lawyers wrote in 2015 that they were gifts from the same “extremely well-to-do Middle Eastern gentleman” who sent her the money.

When government investigators asked about the $15 million transfer, a bank official said that “the sender and beneficiary are boyfriend/girlfriend and are currently together in the Seychelles.”

Using the money gifted to her, van der Merwe also bought a house in Fresnaye, and lent a real estate company her father was involved in a cool $2,7 million.

We’ll call it a day here, but it’s worth reading the full New York Times article, which includes details about how van der Merwe was “recruited at age 19 to travel to an exclusive resort in the Seychelles Islands called The Plantation Club”, frequented by billionaires “for whom money was no object”.

[source:newyorktimes]