I invested with Louis and got no returns, Louis Liebenberg’s brother told court

Before controversial diamond dealer Louis Liebenberg’s R4bn “money-printing machine” was constituted as Tariomix, the scheme allegedly started out as WhatsApped photos of zama zama diamonds and seemingly turned into millions of rand of seed money overnight.

Liebenberg and his wife, along with seven others, were arrested in October in connection for allegedly swindling investors out of about R4.5bn.

They face 42 counts of fraud, five of racketeering, six of money laundering and various other statutory offences including contraventions of the Companies Act 71 of 2008.

In October, Liebenberg was accused by the liquidators of his company Tariomix, better known by its trading name Forever Diamonds and Gold, of siphoning investors’ money to fund his lavish lifestyle, gambling, bribery, illegal diamond dealing and running a Ponzi scheme.

In April 2023, Liebenberg’s brother, Yochanan Liebenberg, was questioned by legal counsel for the joint liquidators in front of retired High Court judge Eberhard Bertelsmann. TimesLIVE Premium has seen a transcript of this interview, led by advocate Johann Hershensohn.

Yochanan Liebenberg dropped several bombshells in that video testimony. Last Wednesday, he confirmed the veracity of the transcription of the 2023 questioning, but did not want to comment.

“I have already done what was required of me. If I speak out now I will just put fresh crosshairs on my own back and I can't continue to live in that space,” Yochanan Liebenberg said last week.

“On the other hand, Louis is my flesh and blood. Now this terrible thing has struck and I just don't think it would be right for me to talk more now.”

According to the transcription, Yochanan Liebenberg made a full statement to the Hawks as early as September 2022.

“I turned to the Hawks in September of last year, and I have been told numerous times, 'Not long now, almost there. Yochanan, your testimony is the cherry on the cake. We already have damning evidence, sufficient’. Yet seven months later, my own life and the lives of other people are made miserable by the lack of action, and of course they owe us no explanation,” he testified in April 2023.

He had to wait another year and six months before brother Louis Liebenberg was eventually arrested at a Benoni eatery in October.

In April 2023, a seemingly despondent Yochanan Liebenberg, who for a while ran the “mining side” of his brother’s operations, opened his heart to the liquidators.

“As you know there are a couple of companies, who all I believe, benefit, or are funded, from what Louis referred to as ‘money-printing machines’. And Tariomix was just one of them that was used as a vehicle that investors, and I call them investors as they would insist on joint venture partners, would buy in on parcels of diamonds,” he said.

Later Zircon and other vehicles followed.

“[Zircon] more or less served the same purpose as Tariomix. [I had] no formal relationship with Tariomix, other than being an investor at that time,” Liebenberg testified.

But it was the origin of the alleged diamond scam that will have readers clutching their pearls. According to Liebenberg, before Tariomix was constituted, it began with WhatsApp photos of zama zama diamonds.

One of Louis Liebenberg’s mine managers, Buks Potgieter, paid a visit to Yochanan Liebenberg at the farm where he lived in 2021. 

“At that point he said to me, ‘Yochanan, let me tell you how Louis started. Louis would phone me and say, Buks, I need a photo, I have to pull a couple of rabbits out of the hat. I need so many millions by the end of the day. Go to the zama zamas, take a few photos. You don’t even have to buy it, WhatsApp it [the pictures] to me.’

“And on that same day, Louis would post it out on the WhatsApp groups, and by the end of the day he had the money. Fake it until you make it. This is what Buks told me to my face,” Yochanan Liebenberg testified.

According to his testimony, his brother frequently referred to Tariomix and the other companies in the group as “money-printing machines”.

Yochanan Liebenberg also invested with his brother after returning to SA from the UK where he lived for a few years, but saw no returns.

“And I actually bought in to the tune of R300,000 on parcels that I didn’t get any return on. And that was in Tariomix.”

Liebenberg seems to believe that West Coast mines bought with investors’ money was his brother’s exit plan from the beginning.

“The single most valuable asset are dumps of final gravel located at the KIeinzee Final Recovery. They were well guarded but raided by zama zamas nightly,” he testified.

“I made an estimate that there was about 35,000 tonnes. One of my first decisions was to move those dumps, 35,000 tonnes, from Kleinzee, where they were vulnerable and raided, to Koingnaas mine, where it would be safe, and I personally instructed and oversaw the tests that we ran, and in that diamond gravel, we found what could be 4-14 carats per single tonne. They are small diamonds, average size, they’re pointers, as it’s referred to.

“Regardless, diamonds of that quality, gem quality, though small, realise about $160 per carat. You can do the calculations. As far as assets go, those dumps are possibly worth in the region of R600m,” Liebenberg said.

“Louis is bargaining on that income to settle much of his outstanding debt. His endgame was to acquire the mines and to close down the money-printing machine, this is what I believe, with the proceeds of the mines and in particular these dumps. Some people believe that the dumps are not as rich as I’ve just said. They are mistaken; they are very rich,” Liebenberg testified.

Louis Liebenberg and his nine co-accused have made two appearances in the Bronkhorstspruit magistrate’s court.

Two weeks ago, Louis Liebenberg abandoned his bail application while three other accused, Magdelena Petronella Kleynhans, Helena Dorothea Amy Schulenburg and Walter Niendinger, were released on bail. 

Last Thursday, four more accused were granted unopposed bail. Petrus Badenhorst was granted R15,000 bail, Adriaan Dewald Strydom R20,000 and Christelle Badenhorst and Nicolize van Heerden were each granted R5,000 bail.

The matter was postponed until November 15 for a bail application by Liebenberg and his wife, Desiree Liebenberg. The case against the rest of the accused was postponed until February 4 for further investigations.

Buks Potgieter did not answer calls or respond to messages.

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