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Liberty Life
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'Dirty tricks by Nats and Liberty Life did me in'
Former Interboard chairman Ed Dutton tells truth body he was a victim, writes JULIE WALKER
ED DUTTON, the former Interboard chairman who fled South Africa three years ago while facing charges of foreign-exchange contraventions involving R150-million, has told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission he was the victim of a conspiracy by Liberty Life and the National Party. In a 16-page submission, dated August 27, 1996 and addressed to Desmond Tutu, Dutton claims to have "irrefutable" proof that the National Party and Liberty Life conspired to destroy competition against Liberty's subsidiary PG Bison. The report was compiled by Dutton at the Long Bay Remand Centre in New South Wales, where he was incarcerated pursuant to an extradition warrant issued by the attorney-general of the Witwatersrand. Dutton was released on November after 13 months in jail and remains in Australia. The TRC acknowledges receipt of the submission and has referred it to the Human Rights Violations committee. Dutton, whose passport had been surrendered as part of his bail conditions, skipped bail in February 1994, forfeiting R275 000. In his submission, he invites Tutu to travel to Australia at Dutton's expense to be presented with evidence and documentary proof of his innocence.
Dutton alleges that the fraud charges were brought against him to achieve three aims. He would have to resign as the independent chairman of the Linbro Park Ratepayers' Association, a democratically elected position. Linbro Park formed 25% of the Modderfontein parliamentary constituency held by General Magnus Malan. Dutton's removal lessened the threat to Malan's re-election. Dutton says he has proof that in the year to May 1989, PG Bison managing director Bertie Lubner donated more than R1-million to General Malan for the National Party. (Lubner says there was no offer for Interboard before its liquidation, and no donation: "Dutton's said this before and I reject it again.") The second reason behind the charges, according to Dutton, was the destruction of Interboard as a formidable competitor to Liberty (PG Bison) and Sanlam (shareholder in Sappi Nova, a similar business to Interboard). Following on from this theme, Dutton says the conspirators could then seize the cash and assets of Interboard and the Mary Gibbs Trust. Central to the prosecution's case against Dutton is the testimony of Ernst & Young's Casper Venter, whom the SA Police asked to travel to Guernsey to establish the identity of the beneficial owners of the Mary Gibbs Trust - the indirect controlling shareholder of Interboard via intermediary companies. Venter said the Gibbs trustees acted in terms of a letter of wishes from the settler of the trust, Ed Dutton himself.
Dutton accuses Ernst & Young of making false depositions about him. He offers his own version of events. He says that in 1981 he was assisted by London venture capitalist Nigel Harris, who arranged for Dutton to obtain capital from a Jersey investment trust, the Mary Gibbs Trust. The capital was used to set up Interboard, and came to SA via the Netherlands. Harris and his partners initially administered the trust. Dutton claims that accounting firm Stonehage took over as administrators of the trust in 1986. "Unknown to me at the time was that Stonehage was owned and controlled by Liberty Life Group through TransAtlantic plc. "Interboard's main competitor, PG Bison, was owned and controlled by Liberty Life through PGSI. There was one other competitor, Sappi Nova, which was owned and controlled by Liberty and Sanlam equally through Gencor. Sappi Nova and PG Bison operated as a cartel. PG was the cartel leader. Sanlam was controlled by the Broederbond." In 1989 David Olsen arrived in South Africa with a letter from Stonehage purporting to remove Dutton's authority and he was forced to resign as Interboard chairman. Olsen appointed himself chairman. Dutton says Olsen was a director of Creative Investments Ltd, a company which owned substantial shares in Liberty as its sole asset. The only other director of Creative was Donny Gordon, chairman of Liberty Life. Speaking from London this week, Gordon said he had never heard of Ed Dutton or of the Mary Gibbs trust. Creative is Gordon's family company and owns TransAtlantic shares, not Liberty. Dutton says Stonehage was owned by Spiro Nominees, in turn owned by Liberty, TransAtlantic and PG Bison director Michael Rapp. Gordon says Spiro is not a house nominee and is not owned by Rapp. Liberty did hold a stake in Stonehage for a couple of years, but had nothing to do with Dutton or the trust. "This ownership tree resulted in Interboard's main investor and major shareholder, the Mary Gibbs Trust, being administered and controlled by persons who owned and controlled Interboard's main competitor PG Bison. "Olsen concealed his involvement with Interboard's opposition." Dutton says Olsen, acting with the permission of the SA Reserve Bank's investigating officer Charles van Staden, implemented a range of business practices aimed at the destruction of PG Bison's major competitor. These included the firing of key personnel, the payment of exorbitant salaries and bonuses to new appointees, discounted sales of Interboard's assets to its competitors and inflated purchases of unprofitable assets by Interboard from its business rivals. Dutton says that after he was removed from the Interboard board, he conducted an investigation which proved that Olsen had acted without the authority of the Jersey trust or of Interboard NV (Netherlands). Dutton says the trust's beneficiaries and Interboard BV (another holding company) demanded the removal of Olsen and instituted legal proceedings when he refused. Dutton was to have presented evidence at the proceedings, but was arrested on fraud charges when he returned to South Africa for Christmas in 1989. He was held for 23 days, missed the hearing, and was prohibited from leaving South Africa by bail conditions. A shortage of funds in a lengthy trial meant Dutton had no legal representation. He was persuaded to "flee the injustice" and wait until after the 1994 elections before dealing with the charges and claims for restitution of his assets.
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