Sexwale's tale of trillions void of credibility

In a press conference this week, businessman and ANC veteran Mosima “Tokyo” Sexwale weaved a clumsy tale of “trillions” of dollars that were allegedly stolen via the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

The money was allegedly transferred by an Indonesian benefactor Chark Leong Boey into a “heritage fund”, of which Sexwale was appointed as a co-mandate holder. The name of the fund is White Spiritual Boy (WSB) Trust, which is red flag number one. Sexwale's story was weirdly amusing yet cringe-worthy and peppered with all the red flags. It became clearer by the minute that Tokyo was scammed.

The presser lasted over two hours and with every minute, Sexwale squandered an opportunity to make it all make sense. He did not exactly quantify the money except to say, “there are lots of zeros” and “trillions”. His sidekick Fanie Fondse who claims to be a shareholder at the SARB later ventured to say 15 zeros. This would put this "fund" in the realm of quadrillions - red flag number two.

In a nutshell, Sexwale alleged the money was stolen and siphoned via 18 local banks, from the coffers of the reserve bank no less. Those allegations effectively put the SARB at the centre of a grand heist in the region $100 trillion to $1 quadrillion or more, literally an insane amount of money. If it were remotely believable or plausible, that would be earth-shattering because SARB is the prudential authority in term of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA), legislation that is meant to curb illicit money flows and money laundering.

Such allegations would imply a failure by the SARB in its role of keeping track of suspicious financial flows, especially as it relates to politically connected individuals like Sexwale himself. It would also mean the SARB failed to hold itself to the standards it expects of the general public, in as far as how retail banks should report suspicious transactions in consumers’ bank accounts.

But the markets were unmoved, simply because no single person or company in the world owns such a large amount of money. Even King Mansa Musa of ancient Mali, who is said to be the wealthiest person who ever lived, had a net worth estimated between $400 billion to $800 billion in today's value. It is also hard to believe how this benevolent Indonesian donor could transfer such a large amount of money into a fund in another country (in this case South Africa), without sending financial markets in his own country (in this case Indonesia) into a tailspin.

To put things into quick perspective, the GDP of the United States, the world’s largest economy is $21.43 trillion. The GDP of Indonesia is about $1.12 trillion. In fact, if the trillions or quadrillions as claimed by Sexwale and Fondse suddenly made it into circulation in South Africa, it would be enough to sharply devalue the rand.

With the amount of corruption in South Africa, it’s easy to understand why some may believe Sexwale’s story. Sexwale is not just some random delusional guy. His business magnate and billionaire status has been well-documented over the many years he was actively involved in Mvelaphanda Holdings.

He has also been a council member of American banking giant JP Morgan Chase, as well as a leader of various JSE-listed companies whose shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders relied on him to be an astute businessman. All of that earns him credibility which demands that we sit up and listen when he talks about money deals and business dealings. We assume he is well-versed with governance issues and that he has solid proof of what he is talking about.

The credibility he has built is the exact reason SARB governor Lesetja Kganyago was skeptical that the letter speaking of WSB Trust, even really came from him.

The question is how much did Sexwale pay to access these trillions? Why is he so desperate to believe in the authenticity of a scam after he was warned by Kganyago and finance minister Tito Mboweni, whom he once considered reliable sources? It's worth noting that the scammer or scammers approached Sexwale at a time when he craved relevance, having quit Mvelaphanda Holdings and Trillian in the years before. They might have thought he would eventually realise he had been scammed by now, but be too embarrassed to admit it to protect his street cred so to speak. After all, scammers thrive in that kind of shame and secrecy and bank on it.

But now we are at the point where he refuses to believe he was scammed by those who "appointed" him as trustee of "WSB Trust", and instead wants to lay the blame on Kganyago, Mboweni, and President Cyril Ramaphosa. So much so he has laid a charge of theft or fraud with the Hawks, which a good thing because it should not be too long before the truth is plain even for him to see.