High-Profile Diamond Dealer Louis Liebenberg and Wife Arrested
Diamond dealer Louis Liebenberg and his wife were arrested at a restaurant in Gauteng on Tuesday night, as confirmed by Hawks national spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo on Wednesday.
Additionally, six more suspects were also apprehended in Gauteng and North West on Tuesday, with a ninth suspect arrested on Wednesday morning.
Mbambo stated that a prosecution-guided, multi-disciplinary operation led by the Northern Cape Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation Unit resulted in the arrest of these nine individuals believed to be part of a diamond syndicate.
It is reported that Liebenberg’s company, Tariomix, also known as Forever Diamonds and Gold, has been under investigation by the Hawks since 2019.
The suspects are scheduled to appear in Bronkhorstspruit Magistrate’s Court outside Pretoria on Thursday, 24 October 2024, facing charges including fraud, money laundering, theft, and racketeering.
This is reportedly not Liebenberg’s first run-in with the authorities. In July 2021, Liebenberg and his company Tariomix had their bank accounts, containing approximately R100 million, provisionally frozen by an order of the North Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria, following allegations of money laundering and operating a Ponzi scheme.
However, in July 2023, Liebenberg and his company were acquitted of these allegations. At the time, Gauteng Division of the High Court Judge Selemeng Mokose stated that the State had failed to present sufficient evidence to support the claims that Liebenberg traded illegally in uncut diamonds.
Before the national election, alleged syndicate leader Liebenberg attended an upscale conference centre, a gathering place for the city’s elite, where he listened to former president Jacob Zuma address the crowd, promising that white people would be safe if the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party won power.
Liebenberg is a well-known benefactor of Zuma, having gifted cows to the former president in April 2022 and co-funded his court case against prosecutor Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan.
In August last year, Maughan and prosecutor Billy Downer won an enforcement order in the Pietermaritzburg Division of the High Court against Zuma’s attempt to privately prosecute them.
Liebenberg is also under investigation by the SA Human Rights Commission over a recording in which he allegedly made racist remarks, including using the “k-word”.
Major-General Matroos, the acting Provincial Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, praised the efforts of the investigation and prosecution teams in closing in on the syndicate.