Cattle ‘ponzi’ fraud scam exposed

The suicide of a man who farmed in the Cathcart and Komgha districts has exposed a massive Ponzi-type cattle fraud in which farmers lost millions of rands worth of cattle.

Shaun Cockin ran a grazing scheme in terms of which he allowed other farmers to graze millions of rands worth of cattle on his extensive farms in the Cathcart and Komgha districts.

In return he promised to split the sale of the cattle’s progeny equally between the cattle owner and Cockin Partners.

But according to a judgment in the Grahamstown High Court, instead of allowing the cattle to graze and reproduce, Cockin quietly sold them off.

Queenstown businessman and farmer Dave Osborn, who had 1800 of his cattle grazing on Cockin’s various farms in line with their grazing and progeny-split agreement, began asking tough questions of Cockin in September last year when he noticed the majority of his cattle were absent. A few days later, Cockin committed suicide.

It was at this point that the extent of what Judge Jeremy Pickering yesterday referred to as Cockin’s “massive Ponzi scheme” was exposed.

Almost R11-million worth of Osborn’s cattle had vanished into thin air. Another victim of a similar “grazing agreement”, Colorado Farming, also alleged in court papers that Cockin misappropriated some 173 head of cattle worth about R1.36-million in a similar manner.

Colorado Farming has already been granted a provisional order sequestrating Cockin’s insolvent deceased estate.

Yesterday, the final wall came tumbling down for Cockin’s cattle farming empire when the Grahamstown High Court also provisionally sequestrated the estate of the Cockin Trust.

Pickering also confirmed a so-called Anton Pillar interdict in terms of which Cockin’s son Mark and widow Marioth were interdicted from in any way dealing with Osborn’s cattle.

They were ordered to disclose any information or documents relating to the missing cattle’s whereabouts.

Osborn had alleged that Cockin Partners was essentially a family concern and that the Cockin Trust was Shaun’s alter ego which had been used to divert assets belonging to people he had swindled.

In court papers both Mark and Marioth denied they were involved in Shaun’s business and said they had no knowledge at all of Shaun’s fraudulent dealings with Osborn’s cattle.

But Pickering found that the averment that Cockin Partners was essentially a family concern and that the business affairs of the “Cockin Group” were closely interlinked was supported by documentation.

Financial statements from the Cockin Trust exposed that an income of some R3-million had been falsely attributed to lucern sales. Cockin neither grew nor sold lucern. Pickering gave the trustees of the Cockin Trust until May 17 to show why the estate of the trust should not be finally sequestrated.