“Married to the Mob: The diamond boer and the honeytrap” – Louis Lieberman - Part 4

https://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-16-married-to-the-mob-the-diamond-boer-and-the-honeytrap/
16 Apr 2015

“You know, being Afrikaans, we are not that close to family,” Lieben¬berg said. “I liked the fact they were very supportive of me going through my divorce. We were always having dinner and lunch together and it really felt like a family.”

Liebenberg accepted the offer, transferring all of his assets to the Ferrantes. Almost immediately, he employed three family members in key positions.

Although he kept his role as chief executive of all the diamond companies, he was now technically working for the Ferrante family.

And the deal was not limited to the companies: “They convinced me I must take all my animals, my cattle, boats, equipment, all of it, and put in Pina’s name,” he said, “and I did that.”

With the assets now Pina’s name, and Liebenberg’s wife heading to the courts, the family decided to liquidate Wealth4u, transferring its assets and rights to concession 10 into African Dune Ltd, owned outright by Pina.

Investors who poured more than R100-million into Wealth4U were concerned that the assets of a multimillion-rand company, including the valuable concession 10, were now the property of African Dune, officially bought on auction by Pina for the rock-bottom price of slightly more than R2-million.

But even with his legal position now shaky, Liebenberg remained excited at the future business possibilities. He thought he had taken all the necessary steps to protect himself.  

“We wrote an agreement that was kept in the office safe,” he said. “If you get to know Afrikaners, we are very trusting. We believe you. We still do business with a handshake.”

Pushing north

He was confident of his contacts in the mining world, which Pina and the Ferrante family needed to enter the diamond trade.

From mid-2009 until the end of 2010, the Ferrante-Liebenberg partnership appeared only to expand. The Italian family wanted to trade diamonds with as many African countries as possible.

And so the South African trader decided it was time to open up his little black book of contacts and bring the Ferrantes properly into the business. Meetings were organised with key functionaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Angola.

Preliminary deals were also struck in Zimbabwe, where the Marange diamond fields were still under a Kimberley Process sales ban because of violence there.

In January 2011 Messicati Vitale visited Zimbabwe with his cousin, Salvatore Ferrante Jnr, and a group of Swiss and Bulgarian bankers.

They were cementing connections for the Zimbabwe Diamond Opportunity venture, and scouting for other deals.