Liquidator flags sky-high witness fees

The director of a doomed yacht company has been accused of trying to make an extra buck by claiming excessive witness fees at the inquiry called to investigating the firm’s collapse.

Tag Yachts 50 director Tim van der Steene at first tried to claim a loss of income of R750 a day when he was subpoenaed to attend the inquiry’s hearings in September.

But he later upped this to R750 an hour,  prompting liquidator Shaun Johnson to investigate further.

This came to light on Tuesday at the interrogation inquiry, set up in terms of the Insolvency Act, to determine how the St Francis Bay company was run into the ground.

The folding of the company resulted in Sultan Ahmed Ghunoum Al-Hameli being left millions of rand out of pocket and without the luxury 50-foot catamaran he claims he was seduced into buying.

Though witnesses at  the inquiry can be charged with perjury for not telling the truth, the information cannot be used against them in a criminal trial.

Johnson  later discovered that Van der Steene had also been hired to consult as an architect through his life partner Karin Schnelker’s company, SZK Consulting, but only on the days he had been subpoenaed to attend the inquiry.

He would then charge the liquidator witness fees to attend the inquiry.

Schnelker, the director of SZK Consulting, appeared before the inquiry on Tuesday to explain the witness fees claimed by Van der Steene.

A lawyer for Al-Hameli, Paul Preston, raised the issue with Schnelker, telling the court that Al-Hameli would have to fork out for the witness fees claims because he was the main creditor.

“Who else is going to pay for that? There are only invoices for the days he sat in court,” he said.

But Schnelker maintained it was above board and that Van der Steene was worth the consultancy fee.

Chartered accountant Imraan Lockhat, of Lockhat Incorporated, also questioned Schnelker on why workers of Tag Yacht were used to build parts of her mother’s house in St Francis Bay in 2016.

This included wooden flooring, a mezzanine level and kitchen counters.

Lockhat was appointed by Al-Hamel to try to trace the R20.4m he invested in Tag Yachts 50 SA.

Schnelker said that Van der Steene designed the home with the building costs coming from the sale of her mother’s house in Johannesburg.

“The workers were sitting idle and Tim said they were ahead of schedule in 2016,” she said.

“The labour at Tag was used and I paid them back.”

Al-Hamel, an Australian couple, an Argentinian steel company CEO and a Swiss private equity adviser all paid millions to either Tag 50 or Tag SA for the construction of catamarans.

But while the directors  allegedly managed to blow R100m in four years, they failed to complete a single promised luxury catamaran.

Lockhat asked if the company had invoiced her. She replied that it had not.

“Was this done because it was cheaper to not pay VAT?” Lockhat asked.

Schnelker responded that she had just paid for labour.