Arthur Kaplan ‘jewel heist’ a disguised business takeover

The big Arthur Kaplan jewel heist, in which the embattled jewellery chain was allegedly swindled out of high-end watches and pieces valued at R50m, is a fabricated story aimed at “crippling” the liquidated business so it can be sold well below value as a going concern. 

This is the narrative put forward by tycoon and former Arthur Kaplan CEO Hoosein Mohamed in his answering affidavit challenging the search and seizure warrant executed against him in his hospital bed while he was under arrest. 

It was done, he said, because it is liquidator Laila Motala’s intention to “cripple the business, placing her in a position to devalue it and sell it as a going concern at reduced value”. 

In his papers, Mohamed claims that the Anton Piller order granted to Motala was fraudulently obtained and carried out in an unlawful manner. The order allowed Motala’s team of experts, accompanied by the sheriff and an independent supervising attorney, to carry out an unannounced search of Mohamed for evidence they believed was being concealed. The order entitled them to seize the evidence to support their case. 

Motala has charged Mohamed with assault for throwing her against a wall and pointing a firearm in her face. This happened while she was going about her duties as liquidator at the Arthur Kaplan head office on June 1. She has also accused him of perpetrating large-scale looting of the chain’s top stores. 

Motala was appointed lead liquidator in December after a Durban businesswoman claiming to be owed more than R1m by Arthur Kaplan successfully applied to the court to have the business declared insolvent. 

After discovering that a large amount of stock could not be accounted for, Motala secured a court order allowing her to search various premises, including homes and businesses linked to Arthur Kaplan staff, but was unable to find any of the missing diamonds, jewellery and watches. 

While Mohamed was still in custody for assault, Motala made an urgent application for him to be searched and all devices in his possession seized and copied. The order was granted by the Joburg high court and was executed on July 7, while Mohamed was in Morningside Mediclinic. He was being treated for severe chronic asthma and had been diagnosed with a kidney cyst. 

Mohamed’s version is indicative of his desperation to get the Anton Piller order set aside. His phones are with the sheriff and the downloading of it, and presenting it during evidence, will be fatal for his case. His version that Ammaarah lawfully removed 11 high-end watches is false. She is on the run.

—  Ian Small-Smith, representing the liquidators

Mohamed, who has applied to have the liquidation reversed, described the action as “the highest degree of fraud” and believes it was done “not to preserve evidence but to intimidate and terrorise me” with the ulterior motive of Motala taking possession “of evidence on my devices that shows how I was extorted by the applicant and her father” and “to intimidate me into withdrawing my allegations against them”. 

Mohamed claims Motala failed to “disclose all the material facts” in obtaining the order that had been executed “in the most embarrassing, degrading and onerous manner possible”. 

At the time the order was executed Mohamed was a hospital patient. He had been injected with dye and was scheduled to go for a kidney scan at 4pm. At 1.30pm, a man who identified himself only as the deputy sheriff served him with the voluminous court order. 

Sheriff Cecil Ryneveld returned at 2pm accompanied by digital forensic expert Reinard Liebenberg of FACTS Consulting and an independent supervising attorney, commercial litigator Bernard Hotz of Werksmans. 

Over several hours the team carried out a search of Mohamed in his hospital bed and seized two phones and another device from him which Liebenberg mirror copied onto hard drives. All evidence, according to Mohamed’s affidavit, was to be kept securely at the sheriff’s office and accessed only in the presence of independent supervisors. 

In a litany of damning claims, Mohamed states: 

• Liebenberg carried out unauthorised keyword searches;
• that Hotz had not acted independently, had engaged in more than 20 calls with Ian Small-Smith, who is representing the liquidators, during the operation and acted on his instructions while failing to protect Mohamed’s rights; 
• the seized devices and copies have not been stored at the sheriff’s office and are at three different locations, one of them the sheriff’s home address. They are being accessed and worked on at strange hours without an independent supervising attorney present. Mohamed knows this because his desktop computer has the Find my iPhone function that enables him to see where his devices are and when they are accessed;
• submitted CCTV footage alleged to show his personal assistant Ammaarah Ismail loading up high-end watches from the prestigious World’s Finest Watches store and removing them without permission, in fact shows Ismail taking 11 luxury watches valued at R2,471,600. They had been bought by VIP customer Sue Bennett as gifts for her overseas family. A dated invoice was submitted as proof;
• Mohamed further claims that he had met with Bennett and given her a watch box to transport her gifts through customs. The empty Hublot and other watch boxes found at his house after his arrest, purported to be evidence of the heist, were the empty boxes he had arranged to courier separately to Bennett. Ismail confirmed both allegations;
• the search on his Big Boy Toys warehouse, where a small portion was used for AK storage, revealed nothing but led to the loss of stock that was explained to him as “stolen by labourers”. He said he had camera footage of the search party perpetrating the theft and damaging his property maliciously. 
• a plane ticket offered as proof that Ismail had flown to Dubai on June 3 was said to be evidence that she had fled the country to offload stolen jewels. Mohamed said a check with the AK travel agent led to the location of an explanatory email detailing Ismail’s Dubai trip that differed from the “evidence” as it had a booking reference on it and the date was in a different format. This week Ismail told TimesLIVE Premium that she was in South Africa on June 3;
• witness statements, alleged to be from Arthur Kaplan staff detailing the removal of jewellery from the stores, should have been annexed to the application or made available to the court via confidential affidavit. Neither was done, leading Mohamed to assert that the statements don’t exist.

Small-Smith said: “Mohamed’s version is indicative of his desperation to get the Anton Piller order set aside. His phones are with the sheriff and the downloading of it and presenting it during evidence will be fatal for his case. His version that Ammaarah lawfully removed 11 high-end watches is false. She is on the run.

“There is a J50 warrant for her arrest in circulation. Mohamed had the opportunity to tell the magistrate in Randburg about the supposed lawfulness of Ammaarah’s actions during his bail application. He didn’t. It is a version created after the fact. The video content is overwhelming. Mohamed’s other claims, like the recent diagnosis of a kidney growth, are false.”

Mohamed’s lawyer Mohseen Mayet said: “As the various legal processes unfold, it is becoming clearer that the liquidators have acted against my client with an ulterior motive from the very beginning.”