Embittered estate agent, Wendy Machanik has accused the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) of using money from the fidelity fund to pay staff salaries and other expenses, while keeping interest on money that had been lodged with it.
The EAAB has dismissed the allegations.
Yesterday Machanik and her former financial adviser Bruce Bernstein appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court on charges of committing fraud of R28-million.
She filed a 600-page document in court in which she accuses the EAAB of committing the same crime that she has been charged with. According to her lawyer, Cyril Ziman the document contained “very serious allegations” against the EAAB.
The document apparently contains an entry dated October 2007 – and taken from the minutes of the EAAB – during which a Mr Naidoo asks why the financial statements were issued when they weren’t qualified.
The Board’s chief executive, Nomonde Mapetla answered that when she took over as the chief of the EAAB the board “was bankrupt and used monies from the fidelity fund to pay staff salaries and other expenses”.
At another meeting in February last year, the Board’s audit committee noted that unless claimants asked for interest on transfers the board kept the money.
According to EAAB board chairman Thami Bolani the current board members of the EAAB are all new and he points out that Machanik had served on the board for a number of years and, he said, if she was concerned by the EAAB’s actions should have done something about it years ago.
Bolani says that the board has had a clean audit for the past six or seven years and is not experiencing any financial problems.
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