NTC Global Trade Fund is currently under business rescue and its director was last month ordered to hand over all company records.
The director of the company whose business rescue is being handled by SmitSew Attorneys and Conveyancers claims he too is fearing for his safety.
Edwin Thabo Letopa is the director of NTC Global Trade Fund which complainants attempted to force into liquidation on two occasions in 2023 and 2024.
Less than a month ago the Gauteng High Court ruled that Letopa provide the business rescue attorneys with all the records related to NTC’s affairs.
Lawyer murdered in Johannesburg
Kurt Knoop of SmitSew was an applicant in the matter, and was working on the case with Bouwer van Niekerk who was shot dead at their offices on Friday morning.
Following the shooting, Letopa said he is also fearing for his safety and will be meeting with his lawyers in the coming week.
“This is a very dangerous situation. I have received many, many threats so far. In one day, I received 600 Whatsapp messages, calls and emails from angry investors. I would say 60% of the were threatening,” Letopa told the Sunday Times.
“Everything is messed up at the moment. I really do not know what the future holds further than that meeting. For now, we are hiding in places of safety,” he added.
Police are searching for at least four men who arrived at SmitSew’s Saxonwold offices on Friday morning.
“Only two of the men went inside and while in the boardroom, gunshots were heard. The unknown men fled the scene,” stated Gauteng police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi.
Legal disputes
An urgent application was filed by Knoop in July seeking to force Letopa — the sole director of NTC — to cooperate with the business rescue process.
On 15 August the court ordered that Letopa must hand over to Knoop the access details for the cryptocurrency wallets managed by NTC, as well as all other business records.
NTC is accused of being a ponzi scheme, however, the Gauteng High Court ruled against the National Director of Public Prosecutions’ claims in March this year.
“The NDPP has not furnished any evidence to prove that any of the respondents use funds from later debenture holders to repay earlier debenture holders,” the judgement stated.
Letopa was one of 29 respondents in the NDPP’s failed application to secure the forfeiture of preserved assets.
The judgement showed the that NTC had R118 million in equity and liabilities as per its financial statements for the year ending 31 August 2023.
Liquidation attempts
In December 2023, 21 applicants instituted an urgent application for the liquidation of NTC, but this was dismissed outright.
The same applicants returned to court in February 2024, this time seeking an order to place NTC in provisional liquidation.
Judgement in this application was reserved, but on 4 March 2024, NTC adopted a resolution for it to be placed in business rescue.
The court then on 13 March 2024 rescinded the dismissal of the first liquidation application and granted an order to place NTC in provisional liquidation.
However, on 24 May 2024, the second liquidation application was withdrawn and the provisional liquidation order was abandoned.
This abandonment was cited by the judge as the basis of Letopa’s refusal to cooperate with Knoop, but the court insisted that Letopa could not exploit the situation.
“Mr Letopa was for a time clearly content with the notion that NTC is in business rescue and that Mr Knoop was its business rescue practitioner.
“It goes against one’s sense of justice to permit him to now upend matters by relying on his own conduct in breach of section 129(2)(a),” the judgement read.
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