Everyone, meet Martin Levick.

Martin was, until recently, the CEO of investment house Genesis Capital, and a well-known “innovator and deal-maker” amongst the Jozi business elite, claiming a personal net worth of around R1,3 billion.

That’s all come crashing down amidst allegations of massive fraud, with Levick provisionally sequestrated and facing criminal and civil legal action.

Let’s head to News24 for more details on the massive, and spicy, fall from grace:

As Levick’s empire has come tumbling down around him, trustees have been appointed to oversee his estate. Levick, who has homes in Houghton and on Clifton beach in Cape Town, and who until recently drove an expensive Aston Martin, has already been visited by the sheriff.

Numerous creditors have come forward claiming that Levick owes them tens of millions of rands through his “desperate and dishonest conduct”, “trickery” and “fraudulent” behaviour. Some affected suggest the total amount that will be claimed will be in excess of R1.5bn.

That’s a cool R1,5 billion, which gets you 10 of these Clifton pads with some spare change for an Aston Martin or two.

Whilst Levick, who was a director and significant shareholder in both Genesis Capital (Pty) Ltd and Genesis Capital Partners, denies any wrongdoing, the Hawks have confirmed that two separate criminal cases are being investigated by the Johannesburg Commercial Crime and Serious Economic Crime Unit.

Warning signs really started going off late last year, when individuals who had invested with Levick over the years started asking for their money back:

Levick negotiated payment agreements with many of them, but in most cases the payments were allegedly not made as promised. The creditors claim that what followed was a series of alleged incidents of fraud committed to pay off preferred individuals.

This culminated in a sequestration application brought by Rael Segal and Segal Super (Pty) Ltd on a semi-urgent basis. The applicants claimed $29m from Levick, in his personal capacity.

Since then, three additional creditors joined in on that application, totalling around the R400 million mark, on top of that $29 million mentioned above.

So we’ve ticked off the Aston Martins and the Clifton pads, but where does Banksy fit in? This is perhaps Levick’s most brazen alleged scam, and is described in detail by businessman Anthony Ball:

Ball has confirmed that he knew Levick for a number of years, during which time Levick had presented a number of business opportunities to him.

In July 2018, Levick approached Ball and asked him for a loan of R30m. The loan agreement was signed between ‘Illovo’ and Genesis UK, the UK arm of Genesis Capital. Levick bound himself as a personal guarantor for Genesis UK.

Ball alleges that the documents which Levick used in this first deal, to give the impression that he was a duly authorised representative of Genesis UK, were used in “carrying out the elaborate theft of the stolen funds under false pretences”.

Central to this was a letter from Catherine Hewett of Fourways auditing firm Thort Chartered Accountants. In it, Hewett writes that “this letter serves to confirm that Martin Levick has always shown a high degree of integrity, judgement and responsibility… He is a captain of industry and has been in business for many successful years”.

She goes on to say, “I confirm based on the information received by ourselves that Martin Levick assets amount to R1 296 930 000”.

Ball was thus convinced that Levick was good for the money, and Levick duped Ball into thinking he stood to profit to the tune of $3,5 million for his part in buying and selling on a Banksy artwork, Grannies (below), to rich mutual friends:

On December 4, 2018, Illovo paid $3.5m to Genesis UK, to fund the “Supposed Art Work Deal”. What Anthony Ball and his trustees didn’t know at the time, which they subsequently found out, was that the money never went to Maon Jacobson to pay for the Grannies artwork. Instead, it was allegedly funnelled off into the account of another Levick creditor, Warren Friedland.

In reality, what happened was that Jacobson purchased the artwork on December 9, and did not receive any funds from Levick. But for more than three months, Levick “unlawfully, intentionally and under false pretences” continued to “mendaciously perpetuate the fraud” by continuing with the “charade”. Ball’s affidavit details multiple examples of this.

Genesis Capital MD Stan Melnick has already moved to distance the company from Levick, with the disciplinary processes implemented leading to his immediate resignation.

When the Sunday Times contacted Levick for comment, he was rather tough to pin down:

A woman who answered a landline at Levick’s Houghton home, who would not give her name, said Levick was not there.

Allegations of malfeasance were put to Levick, who said he could not respond owing to his mother’s ill-health and his duty to care for her. He referred requests for comment to his attorney.

Levick’s attorney, Marco Martini, said he could not disclose whether or not he would oppose the order sought by the Segals to finally sequestrate Levick’s estate.

When speaking with News24, ahead of the publication of their story on Levick, Martini was even more forthright:

Martini also issued a veiled warning, that allegations contained in the sequestration application were “defamatory” against Levick.

“Finally, as advised telephonically, some of the applications before the Court contain defamatory allegations (which you as an experienced reporter have no doubt read and understood) and should you publish your article incorporating such defamatory allegations, you will merely be aggravating the defamation and possibly making yourself a party thereto. You are once again advised to proceed with caution.”

Very, very spicy.

A sequestration application was heard in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg in April, and a provisional order was granted with a return date for a final order to take place in June.

You can read more about Levick, and the exact workings of the alleged Banksy painting scam, here.

[sources:news24&sundaytimes]