Supreme Court auction shock for billionaire weapons-maker Ivor Ichikowitz BILLIONAIRE weapons-maker Ivor Ichikowitz has lost a three-year battle against High Street Auctions, which he accused of faking bids to inflate the price of a property he was buying.Ichikowitz bought Thaba Phuti, a lodge and game farm near Rustenburg, for R20-million in 2011. But a video of the auction appears to show auctioneer Joff van Reenen pretending to take bids from nonexistent buyers in the room to push up the price.After a bid of R15-million was reached, Van Reenen seemed to pretend there were other bidders in the room and kept increasing the price. But the only real bids, as Van Reenen continued to up the price, came from Ichikowitz.The farce continued until a price of R19.75-million was reached when Van Reenen called “you are out”, implying a competing bidder had dropped out.The auctioneer did not specifically say before each bid that they were being placed on behalf of the farm’s seller — a process...
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