The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has conducted a search and seizure operation at the property of financial services company, Akani Retirement Fund Administrators.

Moneyweb reports that the authority yesterday said the order, carried out in line with the Financial Sector Regulation Act, was granted by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria).

Unathi Kamlana, the FSCA’s commissioner, said the body’s overriding objective is to protect financial customers, including members of retirement funds, who represent all members of society demographically.

Full Moneyweb report

Akani Retirement Fund Administrators is administering assets of some R6bn, including the assets of the Chemical Industries National Provident Fund (CINF).

Netwerk24 reports Akani has been in the spotlight since 2019 when allegations of corruption were levelled in court papers.

The long-standing former administrator of the fund, NBC, challenged the decision to terminate its mandate in favour of Akani. NBC was successful in a full Bench appeal decision handed down some two weeks ago.

The Gauteng High Court also ordered that two trustees of the CINF who wwere involved in the appointment of Akani must be removed as trustees.

Judge Leicester Adams, writing the judgment on behalf of the full Bench, said a central question in the review was whether trustees of the CINF were bribed to appoint Akani.

Two trustees and the chief officer of the pension fund – who has since died – received payments around the time of the decision.

They claimed that the payments were proceeds of a funeral policy scheme for deaths in their family.

However, Adams said it was a ‘remarkable coincidence’ that all three joined the same funeral policy scheme three months before the decision, all three lost family members within a period of three weeks, and were paid out on the same date.

The full Bench found the explanations fanciful. The FSCA and authorities should investigate the matter, Adams said.

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