Fidentia fraudster J Arthur Brown released on parole

Disgraced former Fidentia boss and convicted fraudster J Arthur Brown has been released on parole.

Singabakho Nxumalo, a spokesperson for the department of correctional services, said Brown was released on Thursday after serving seven years of his 15 year sentence after being found guilty on two counts of fraud.

Brown was accused of using investors’ funds for his personal gain and initially faced a more than 100 charges relating to the disappearance of more than R1bn from a trust that paid money from a mineworkers’ provident fund to widows and orphans of workers. 

Singabakho Nxumalo, spokesperson for the department of correctional services, said Brown was released from prison on Thursday. The pension fund fraudster has served seven years of his 15 year sentence.

“This decision was taken by the correctional supervision and parole board, having assessed Brown’s profile and other material submitted for the purposes of parole consideration,” Nxumalo said in a statement.

“Classified as a first-time offender with a positive support system, Brown’s parole placement is in line with section 73 of the Correctional Services Act. The act determines the minimum period of sentence that must be served before consideration may be given for possible parole placement.”

Nxumalo said Brown was originally scheduled for release in August 2019 “but he could not be placed on parole at the time as there was a need for further profiling”.

He said Brown took responsibility for the offences he committed and was remorseful.

“Having completed all the identified programmes as per his correctional sentence plan, Brown was assessed and reports by specialists recommended parole placement,” Nxumalo said.

“The victim-offender dialogue programme is to continue as there is a need to reach out to all his secondary victims. Brown will complete the remainder of the sentence in the system of community corrections, whereby he is expected to comply with specific set of conditions and will be subjected to supervision until his sentence expires on December 2 2028.”

Brown was in 2014 sentenced to an effective 15 years behind bars for two fraud charges after the Supreme Court of Appeal set aside his previous sentence of a suspended jail term and a fine of R150,000 in May 2013 by the Western Cape High Court.

Brown had approached the Constitutional Court, which dismissed his application.

TimesLIVE