Lawyers for Auction Alliance’s Rael Levitt say they will challenge any attempt to gain a warrant for his arrest.
|||Lawyers for Auction Alliance’s Rael Levitt say they will challenge any attempt to gain a warrant for his arrest – because they believe the process has been flawed.
Levitt was due to appear before the National Consumer Commission on Tuesday – but did not. His whereabouts are still only speculated about. Media reports on Tuesday said the NCC was drawing up court papers to obtain an arrest warrant for Levitt.
But Levitt’s lawyers, Smiedt & Associates, said: “We have requested the NCC to give us notice of any application to the magistrate’s court if they intend to apply for a warrant (of arrest) as we intend to make representations to the relevant magistrate, that the summonses were not properly served, as is required by the Consumer Protection Act as well as the Criminal Procedure Act, and are therefore invalid.”
In its judgment at the end of March, the NCC said it found that Levitt had used “ghost bidder” Gideon Leygonie to bid against billionaire businesswoman Wendy Appelbaum for the Quoin Rock Wine Estate, so contravening section 45 of the CPA.
The commission also said it had found several glaring omissions and factual inaccuracies in Levitt’s defence documents. These included a statement in which Levitt alleged that he assumed that Auction Alliance had recruited Leygonie as a vendor bidder. But in his testimony, Leygonie contradicted Levitt’s account, saying the Auction Alliance founder had in fact instructed him to bid as a proxy on behalf of offshore buyer Ariel Gerbi 10 minutes before the auction.
“We conclude that the evidence presented before the NCC, including Appelbaum’s complaint that Levitt conducted a mock auction… are both true and have been factually substantiated… This being the case, both Levitt and Auction Alliance are guilty of contravening the provisions of the CPA by conducting a mock auction with the intention to induce Appelbaum to participate in a flawed auction process…” NCC commissioner Mamodupi Mohlala said.
But Levitt’s lawyers countered: “We mention further that Levitt has not been found guilty of fraud nor bid-rigging. The NCC has ruled that our clients are guilty of contravening certain aspects of the Consumer Protection Act. No criminal trial has taken place in respect of these rulings.
“It should also be mentioned in this regard the NCC does not have the right to impose jail sentences upon persons. That is reserved for the courts in our country.
“Neither Levitt nor AA has been convicted of any offence, appeared in any court or been required to stand any trial,” his lawyers said.
Cape Argus