Marietjie Prinsloo charmed a community into ruin, turning friends into recruiters in one of SA’s biggest Ponzi schemes.
South Africa has seen its fair share of creative cons, but few were as destructive as the Krion investment scheme led by Marietjie Prinsloo, better known as the “Angel of Vanderbijlpark”.
She managed to decimate an entire town with her schemes.
According to victims she was charming and warm. That, along with promises of prosperity abused engendered trust and she turned neighbours, friends and family into recruiters.
Prinsloo charmed a community into ruin
That was until the scheme collapsed, leaving over R1.5 billion in losses and thousands of people out of pocket.
It began in the late 1990s with what seemed a harmless opportunity to make money work harder by investing in Krion Investment Services.
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The organisation promised generous monthly returns, claiming profits came from clever business ventures and trading operations.
The story spread by word of mouth through churches, schools, and community gatherings. As with all Ponzi schemes, people believed because people they trusted also believed.
Some even made money in the beginning, as long as there were new people coming in with fresh cash.
Friends and family into recruiters
Even after warnings from the Reserve Bank, Prinsloo carried on unabated. She insisted all was well and that investors would see dividends.
Krion ended up becoming a web of hundreds of smaller entities run by family members and associates. Prinsloo’s daughter and niece were among those later convicted with her.
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The operation was dressed up as legitimate businesses, with contracts, letterheads and investment tiers that gave it an air of sophistication.
By 2002 the house of cards tumbled. Pensioners lost their savings while other investors had bonded their homes to buy into the scheme.
The Reserve Bank froze accounts and a lengthy investigation revealed a bunch of unregistered companies used to shuffle funds.
25 years in prison
In 2010, the High Court in Pretoria brought what became a town’s financial tragedy to a conclusion when Prinsloo was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Family members received lesser terms of between five and 15 years. The judge called it one of South Africa’s largest and most heartless financial schemes.
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