Policemen often talk about finding a “smoking gun”, that piece of evidence which proves a suspect’s guilt. In the complex financial services sector, smoking guns can take years to uncover. If the perp has the cunning of a Bernie Madoff, it only happens once the criminal scheme unravels. It is in this context that we should read the affidavit of Paul David Yabsley, senior analyst in the Enforcement Division of the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.
Yabsley has spent months investigating the alleged Belvedere Ponzi kingpins, South African Cobus Kellermann and his Irish partner David Cosgrove. Yabsley’s 28-page affidavit is backed up by more than 1 000 pages of supporting documentation. It appears to prove, rather comprehensively, that as accused, Cobus Kellermann did indeed commit the greatest of all money management sins – manipulating the net asset value of their underlying fund’s portfolio.
The affidavit also links Belvedere to the CWM FX scam uncovered in March by the City of London police. A high profile bust of the UK’s Wolf of Wall Street lookalike which scammed investors for over R365m (ÂŁ20m). The “foreign enterprise” behind CWM hasn’t been publicly named. But Yabsley’s affidavit touches on some rather uncomfortable links between CWM and Belvedere. We gave Kellermann and Cosgrove almost a week to give us their side of the story. To no avail. Then again, the Guernsey Regulator has been waiting for months with the same (non) response.
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Sleep well at night with a financial cushion for support
EFF to lodge a complaint over treatment of Thuli Madonsela by ANC MPs
Public Protector’s budget briefing descends into insults & rebukesÂ
UPDATED: Plot thickens as relative arrested in PE teacher’s murder
* Click here to read the “back story” and access links to all the Biznews.com c0verage of the Belvedere saga.
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