Sale of fraudster’s land falls flat

A Norwegian parastatal’s hopes of selling an Eastern Cape game farm once owned by a former director who misappropriated millions from it have been dashed.

A prospective buyer has failed to come up with R47.5-million asked.

The former director of the Nedre Romerike Vannwerk (NRV) in south-eastern Norway, Ivar Henriksen, was convicted in 2008 by a Norwegian court of stealing some 63-million Norwegian krone from his employer in a fraud and corruption scandal that the Norwegian media said was the most serious to ever hit the country.

The NRV is an inter-municipal waterworks company providing potable water to three municipalities in Norway.

Henriksen embezzled millions over many years and used some of his ill-gotten gains to set up a South African company, Unitrade 201, which bought up some nine farms consisting of a whopping 8000 hectares around Carlisle Bridge north of Grahamstown.

One of the farms was called Schelms Drift and Henriksen later became known as the skelm (scoundrel) of Schelms Drift.

Here, Henriksen created a private hunting paradise called Woodlands, with more than 23 species of game – including buck, wildebeest, giraffe and zebra – where he and his cronies regularly came to holiday and hunt. The farm has several stunning buildings on it including the main hunting lodge with its original stone buildings and hardwood floors.

But his jaunts to South Africa came to an abrupt end when his exploits were exposed by Norway’s largest newspaper Aftenposten.

Henriksen was later sentenced to eight years imprisonment.

His company and all the farms it owned were forfeited to the NRV.

The company has been trying in vain to sell the farm ever since to recover some of the plundered cash. Last year it looked like their woes were over when investor Bert Rayner – an Eastern Cape businessman who reportedly spends much of his time in Australia – offered them R47.5-million for the farms.

Dag Jørgensen, NRV director and the man responsible for mopping up the mess left behind by Henriksen, was quoted in Norwegian media as being delighted about the imminent sale.

The media at the time said the farms were considered to be the epitome of the former waterworks chief’s dishonesty and disloyalty.

But, according to papers before the Grahamstown High Court, the money was not forthcoming from Rayner.

Cape Town attorney for the NRV Ryan Smith says in an affidavit that the NRV and Rayner, who gave as his residential address a house at the Royal Alfred Marina in Port Alfred, had initially entered into a sale agreement in May last year. In terms of the agreement Rayner bought all the shares in Unitrade 201 – effectively buying all the farms for R47.5-million.

He was supposed to come up with a R9-million deposit within 10 days and the balance was to be paid when the share certificates were delivered to him.

The sale agreement stipulated that any dispute would be referred to arbitration. Smith said Rayner had failed to make any payment whatsoever and the matter was referred to arbitration.

Rayner appeared to go to ground and did not respond to any correspondence from Smith, the NRV or the arbitrator. In June this year, the arbitrator granted default judgment against Rayner.

The NRV in late October successfully applied to make the award an order of court. Although Rayner entered a notice to oppose the court application, he did not file any court papers.

Neither Jorgensen nor Rayner responded to e-mails sent to the e-mail addresses cited in court papers.

Smith also refused to comment on what the next legal step might be if Rayner did not come up with the money.

Aftenposten recently revealed that a further 23-million Norwegian krone were found in a Swiss bank account in the name of Henriksen. The money has reportedly been sent back to Norway.

The 76-year-old Henriksen is reportedly still serving time in jail but has applied for early release due to ill health.