Court says no to Falk
2009-07-30
HOPES that funding for the development of the farm Canetsfontein outside Wellington will become available, have been dashed. The owner of the farm, multi-millionaire German businessman Alexander Falk has been denied access to funding of R59 million held by Standard Bank in South Africa. Falk (35), heir to a cartography fortune, made headlines in 2003 after his assets were seized by the Scorpions. This follows investigation into fraud by the German police after he and six employees allegedly conspired to manipulate the share price of his listed internet company, Ision AG, in 2000, before selling 75% of the business to a British company Energis for about R6 billion. Falk received a payment of R75 million from his shareholding and transferred most of it to South Africa. He was sued when Energis went bankrupt. His assets were then restrained by a court order in Germany and he was remanded into custody prior to the court case, facing a possible sentence of ten years. He spent 22 months in jail, but is currently out on bail of 1,5 million Euro. The presiding judge of the criminal court in Hamburg stated that the charge of fraud is no longer sustainable and is unlikely to be upheld, but the charges were not withdrawn and the German authorities appealed the decision.
In May 2008 Falk was found guilty of fraud, along with four co-accused, and sentenced to four years, but is appealing against the court decision.
Falk’s application in the Cape High Court to have the R59 million released to him, was refused with costs by Judge Willem Louw, because the outcome of the court case in Germany is not yet known.
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