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Full Disclosure
| Date: |
29 April 2007 12:00 |
| Producer: |
A2 Productions
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| Show: | Carte Blanche |
In 1997 Carte Blanche told the incredible rags to riches story of Gervan Lubbe, a young telephone technician from Pretoria who had the world at his feet. He invented the Action Potential Simulation or APS therapy machine, claiming it was a world breakthrough in pain relief.
[Carte Blanche 1997]
To alleviate boredom Gervan used to sit at his dining room table in the evenings, tinkering with what was to become the first prototype of his machine. The first experiments produced remarkable results.
Lubbe astounded even scientists and medical experts. The accolades poured in.
Lubbe's fame grew and he became a darling of society, rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous. His wealth also multiplied.
[Carte Blanche 1997]
Michelle Alexander (Carte Blanche presenter): 'Are you a multi-millionaire now?'
[Carte Blanche 1997]
Gervan Lubbe: 'I am a multi-millionaire, yes.'
It's almost ten years to the day Lubbe was on Carte Blanche, telling of his rise to fortune.
But this week his latest company, supposed to bring him new riches and fame, was liquidated.
His own directors have brought the high court application for the liquidation. They also laid criminal charges against Lubbe relating to fraud.
Riaan Putter (Director: Gervan's Trading): 'We didn't have a choice ... we have to pay all our creditors. We've already ruined all these shareholders' lives and how many other people, now we must owe these people more because there's no more money because we knew we won't be able to pay our accounts at the end of the month.'
Riaan Putter is one of the directors who dragged Lubbe to court - and one of about seventy employees of Gervan's Trading in Port Elizabeth who've lost their jobs. These employees now believe that Lubbe has taken them - and investors - for a ride.
Riaan: 'The first time I met him he said he had a business opportunity, the distribution rights for his book Full Disclosure, ja, and he showed me a couple of things. Most outstanding young person, he showed us a Carte Blanche programme, so he sold himself and I bought him as a person.'
In court papers the directors claim that Gervan's Trading has sold R30-million of shares to about 500 investors countrywide over the past three years. But there's only about R5 000 left.
Now they question some of Lubbe's invention claims. It was on the basis of these new inventions they bought -and sold- company shares.
Rudi Potgieter (Shareholder): 'Gervan showed me a whole graph of the dividend where it came to R52 000 dividend per share that could be paid out.'
Rudi Potgieter doesn't want to say exactly how many shares he bought, but he believed it to be an excellent investment with huge dividends once Gervan's three products were launched.
Rudi: 'From the first month that it's launched, it will be paid out not per year, it would be paid out per month. So after the first month after the launch it could be paid out R52 000.'
Danie Ueckermann too thought he could retire on the promise of Gervan's riches. He even extended his family.
Danie Ueckermann (Director: Gervan's Projects): 'I decided not to have more children because I wasn't able to provide them with what you want to and here you started getting to get into that comfort zone [with] everything that's coming. My wife got pregnant again after eight years and she's now five months old.'
Ueckermann was a director of Gervan's Projects, a subsidiary of Gervan's Trading. Like most of his former colleagues he last received a salary in January. Ueckerman and his family haven't been able to pay their rent and have moved into a small cottage at a friend's house.
Danie: 'You've got friends, that's when you know you've got friends, and my baby, I always said she's a present.'
Gervan Lubbe (Chairman: Gervan's Group): 'Well they should never have liquidated Trading should they? They should never have liquidated it ... there was no reason to liquidate it.'
Gervan Lubbe and his wife Celeste still live in the mansion that doubled up as headquarters for his business empire. Lubbe says his company was on the brink of great things. He remains overly ambitious - and still boasts he can pull it off all by himself.
Gervan: 'If you ask me who's my role model, I can say to you its Richard Branson. And there is one award I would like to get and that is the Nobel Prize.'
This isn't the first time Lubbe's lost it all - including the bodyguards who used to shadow his every move.
All the millions he made from APS also disappeared when things went sour with his African Flame Group.
Lubbe then fled to Botswana, where things once again went wrong with the nightclub he started.
He was convinced there was a vendetta against him - and Lubbe re-enacts the strange story in his self-made promotional video.
Gervan: 'But that night I heard a couple of hyenas.'
Devi Sankaree Govender (Carte Blanche presenter): 'But then everybody was after you even the hyenas?'
Gervan: 'Yes.'
Devi: 'Gervan Lubbe has had a business career that saw him make millions and then lose it all. But it was here in Port Elizabeth that he came to make his biggest fortune yet and the lavish headquarters of Gervan's latest venture were sure to impress potential investors.'
Gervan's, as they called the group, started its operations here in a posh suburb of Port Elizabeth at the end of 2004.
Over the next three years the company would spend most of the shareholders' millions - ostensibly on salaries and infrastructure.
Ten directors and a sales team aggressively marketed shares and the promised products.
Devi: 'So you had a fully fledged marketing company, everything was set up, but what were you selling?'
Gervan: 'No, we were not selling anything yet. We were first constructing and building and structuring Gervan's Trading, which took us up to three years.'
At the heart of the fall-out between Lubbe and his directors are his claims about three of his products the company was supposed to sell: his autobiography, an improved version of his APS pain therapy machine called the NIS, and a malaria wristwatch monitor.
Gervan: 'There's nothing wrong to create a need in the market for your product and then once your company is ready to launch your product and you make your product available to everybody that ordered it.'
Bruwer Conradie claims the directors were ready for the high-profile international launch a long time ago. But three years later and Lubbe kept on postponing the launch - and refused to provide any proof of his inventions.
Bruwer Conradie (CEO: Gervan's Trading): 'There were uncountable times where he stopped the launch or basically postponed it.'
Conradie was only 27 when he first met Lubbe. He admits he knew very little about business, but he did go on to become CEO.
Bruwer: 'He said he had rights or first rights with Carte Blanche or you actually wanted the first rights to show the products and disclose the products and if anything comes out before the Carte Blanche programme he will lose the Carte Blanche programme.'
Lubbe hired his own camera crew to film his life story and the Gervan's group at work, allegedly for the product launch that was supposedly going to be on Carte Blanche.
Gervan: 'That's not the case ... I've always said we would love to have a Carte Blanche programme, but if we get a Carte Blanche programme, we are honoured.'
But we have a company letter to Gervan's shareholders, stating that a forty-minute programme is scheduled on M-Net.
We also have an email sent to Lubbe from the cameraman, referring to the shoot as having been done for us.
The cameraman in question this week confirmed that he was told the footage was intended for Carte Blanche.
And the source tapes of the shoot are marked 'Gervan's Carte Blanche'.
George Mazarakis (Executive Producer: Carte Blanche): 'There was never any plan or any discussion about doing anything at all about Gervan Lubbe. We'd not committed to doing anything of the sort, we hadn't considered it and nor would we consider doing anything like that.'
George Mazarakis, executive producer of Carte Blanche, had legal papers delivered on Lubbe, demanding he desist from using our name.
Apart from the alleged Carte Blanche programme not happening, there were several other hiccups. In February last year daily newspaper Die Burger strongly questioned the science behind the malaria monitor.
Devi: 'Talking about the malaria watch, where was it tested?'
Gervan: 'We did all the testing internally. The malaria watch doesn't need to be tested. There was a lot of media articles stating that the malaria watch was tested by the University of Pretoria. It was not tested.'
Bruwer: 'There was no proof really. We saw the prototype tight in the beginning. We saw a little electronic board with a couple of resistors on, stuff that we don't know anything of so he showed us that and said this is basically the blueprint for the malaria monitor.'
Devi: 'But does the prototype for the malaria monitor exist?'
Gervan: 'Absolutely. It would have been extremely foolish and stupid to go and patent the NIS therapy and the malaria wristwatch three years ago because the provisional patent application only runs for twelve months where after it is published. And then the public has access to your patent.'
But after three years the investors' money ran out - and the directors questioned the inventions. The Herald journalist Piet van Niekerk broke the story of the legal action they took against Lubbe.
Piet van Niekerk (Journalist): 'So after these directors go and ask for these basic products and basic proof, the judge said this is an amazing story but before we grant the final order won't we just ask the clerk of the court to see if Gervan is here. So they go outside and shout out his name and there's nobody. Clear court and he's got to grant the order.'
Lubbe didn't oppose the directors' application to provide them with some proof of his claims.
This was an alleged order from Anglo American for 121 000 malaria watches. They also wanted disclosure of Lubbe's claims of an alleged warehouse with 185 000 malaria monitors, 286 000 NIS devices and 5.2 million copies of his autobiography.
Two weeks ago Lubbe did launch a few copies of his book on his own, but it was certainly not the elaborate international affair envisaged. But Lubbe remains surprisingly confident in his business model.
Devi: 'Gervan Lubbe's book makes for interesting reading. He started working on his autobiography in 1998 and he's convinced that his book will become an international bestseller, raking in millions for himself and his shareholders.'
Gervan: '5.2 million is the figure that we envisaged we would sell.'
Devi: 'But that's like saying you can outsell J.K. Rowling?'
Gervan: 'We publish the book by the Gervan's Trust Foundation. I believe our marketing is better than any publishing company could ever market.'
Van Niekerk was one of the first to have read Lubbe's book. He and a colleague immediately spotted plagiarism throughout an entire chapter.
Devi: 'Do you honestly see it as an international bestseller?'
Piet: 'No it's badly written, it's bad language, there's one chapter that's better than the rest and we know it was plagiarised.'
Gervan: 'I was stupid. Let me be honest. I didn't know I had to put a reference, I was just stupid.'
Lubbe claims he was only waiting for a R1-million investment to launch all three products. He blames the directors for reversing this investment. They, in turn, say it would only have been R600 000, hardly covering outstanding debts and salaries. They felt it would be unethical to take more money.
Bruwer Conradie had already sold over a R1-million worth of shares to family and friends and says he can't face them any more. He's since left South Africa for Mexico. Conradie lost everything.
Bruwer: 'I hope that we're wrong. But if we are not that should be the last time that Gervan Lubbe should be allowed to do what he just did with about five hundred people ... ruining their lives, taking the last cent out of their pockets. I really want to put a stop to that.'
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
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