The Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (Irba) disciplinary hearing against former auditors of the failed Sharemax property syndication scheme has been postponed sine die, says a Moneyweb report.

This follows Advocate Mike Maritz, appearing for the three auditors, this week submitting an application for the recusal of two committee members of the disciplinary committee on the grounds of actual bias or perceived bias related to the proceedings.

Advocate Kate Hofmeyr, appearing for Irba, said yesterday the allegations made by Maritz that she had misled the committee in her opening address are unfounded and untrue. Noting she had made it clear at the beginning of her opening address that the source of the information she was relaying to the committee was to be found in media articles, she claimed Maritz had levelled the unfounded allegations against her in an effort to intimidate her.

‘He thinks that the more he pounds the table, the more I will be cowed into retreating and not presenting the case that his clients need to answer,’ said Hofmeyr.

‘He also does so to intimidate this committee, to leave it fearful of making any determination that may be adverse to the respondents and to make it hesitant to put its difficulties to the witnesses who are before it,’ she said.

Hofmeyr said her opening address has no bearing at all on the recusal applications before the committee. If it did, it is a requirement of law that the auditors’ legal representatives ought to have sought the recusal of this entire committee that was allegedly poisoned by her opening address shortly after it was given, she said.

Jacques Andre van der Merwe, Danie Dreyer and Petrus Johannes Jacobus Bekker are facing a total of 340 charges related to work they did for Sharemax.

They have pleaded not guilty.

Full Moneyweb report