Standard Bank yesterday denied allegations of fraud and intimidation made by retired professor Anele Mngadi Hammond in a series of viral social media posts.

TimesLIVE reports the conflict allegedly began when Hammond attempted to buy a car through her foundation. After a dealership informed her they could not accept an international payment, she approached Standard Bank to finance the car.

According to Hammond, the trouble started in April 2015, shortly after she collected the vehicle. She claimed the bank began deducting double the agreed-upon instalments for the first three months.

When she contacted the bank to rectify the error, she alleges they claimed to have no record of her or her foundation, despite the vehicle being registered in the foundation’s name.

Hammond detailed a series of terrifying encounters, starting with an early-morning visit from the sheriff and police to seize the vehicle.

She claims she refused to release the car and later hired a private investigator who suggested she was being targeted by a ‘syndicate’ involving senior bank officials, law enforcement and auctioneers.

Hammond claims she was attacked in her home by nine armed men who threatened her with an AK-47, demanding she drop the fraud case.

In the videos, which relate to a vehicle finance dispute dating back to 2015, she accuses the bank and its representatives of criminal conduct.

However, Standard Bank has dismissed the claims as ‘false and baseless’, adding that the matter – involving the purchase of a Ferrari – was amicably resolved in 2018.

Head of personal and private banking, Kabelo Makeke, said there had been a ‘valid and enforceable financing agreement’ between the bank and Hammond.

In the series of videos shared over the past few days, Hammond said that, during an extended project she was working on in 2015, she needed to buy a car, and that was when she alleged that Standard Bank ‘committed fraud against me’. 

News24 reports that she said that she intended to purchase the car – she did not mention it was a Ferrari – for cash.

However, the dealership returned the international payment and recommended that she finance the vehicle through a local bank.

She claimed that Standard Bank objected to every application she made to resolve the ordeal: They kept me in court permanently. I couldn’t focus on anything else. Whenever I return home to Switzerland, I am dragged back to court.’

Full TimesLIVE report

Full News24 report