The tallest trees catch the most wind right, which is why when Sandile Shezi’s name was splashed around the country as our ‘youngest self-made millionaire‘ you could almost see the target on his back.

It hasn’t taken very long for the accusations to roll in, a mystery R30 million account at the centre of the scandal. In addition Shezi has been accused of plagiarising the course material for his company Global Forex Institute (GFI).

The R30 million account allegations stem from the fact that GFI points to their massive profit as a reason for wannabe traders to sign up for a course. Here’s News24 with more:

Questions have been raised about the account’s legitimacy and whether it actually belongs to GFI, as claimed on its Facebook page, where a post says: “Now is YOUR time for $$$$. This Saturday 18 July we will host a FREE Forex (foreign exchange) Class at Protea Hotel Umhlanga. You will get to meet the nr1 ranked trader in Africa and we will show you how we made R30 million then you copy our strategy!” …

Shezi has refuted allegations that he claimed the R30 million belonged to GFI:

[He] said whenever they showed accounts in seminars, the account holder’s name was shown with the account on screen and credit given verbally to the account owner.

So you’re pointing at someone else’s account as an indicator of the success of your business? Sounds a little dodgy to me. Over to that plagiarised course material then:

Some sections of the notes the GFI uses to train clients appear to be plagiarised from a site called BabyPips, a free beginner’s guide to forex trading…

[Shezi said] “I took it personally upon myself to compare the notes. I could not find any ‘plagiarised’ sentences. I couldn’t find any correlation between the format and chapter headings at all. I did however notice some of the pictures looked very similar…

However, this is a null point as we have spent the past year compiling a 300-page comprehensive training manual… We have already started using our new training manual.”

And what of this murderous business partner then? His name is George van der Riet and it appears many in the industry have a bone to pick with him, having contacted News24 with stories about the other half of GFI:

News24 has established that Van der Riet served time for manslaughter and drug dealing in the UK.

But – in Shezi’s words – the GFI co-founder merely “spent two years as a guest of her Majesty” as a result of “an altercation where a man sustained a head injury and died in hospital three days later”. The company’s co-founder has since “done a lot of charity work”, added Shezi.

The convictions for manslaughter and drug dealing came under the name ‘David van der Riet’, with the photo used during the 2011 conviction matching those of George’s current Facebook account:

The BBC reported in July 2011 [that link is worth a read] that David van der Riet admitted to manslaughter and being in possession of drugs, with the intention of supplying them, during a case at the Old Bailey in London.

Shezi has since said that George / David has little to do with GFI any longer, although Facebook posts as recently as August 19 show van der Riet leading a GFI course.

Whatever you make of all this you have to think Shezi should have had his ducks in a row before he let himself be paraded around in front of the national media. Any little skeletons were always going to be dug up, although having a convicted criminal as a business partner and using other people’s accounts to toot your own horn ensured no one had to look all that hard.

[sources:news24&news24]