Charges withdrawn against Alpha execs and attorney after DPP finds allegations ‘baseless’

All criminal charges against Antonio Iozzo, founder and CEO of Alpha, the company’s group CFO Daniel Werner Roets and attorney Abraham Johannes van Rensburg have been formally withdrawn.

The decision was made at the Palm Ridge specialised commercial crimes court in Johannesburg on Tuesday, following a full review by the office of the director of public prosecutions (DPP).

The withdrawal brings the criminal proceedings against all three men to an end.

The charges arose from complaints laid by Nicola Iozzo, of Mont Blanc Financial Services, and Gregory Hutchinson, relating to a long-running dispute concerning private family trusts.

The DPP reviewed those complaints together with the extensive documents and evidence supplied by Iozzo.

The outcome of the review was unequivocal: the allegations against Iozzo, Roets and Van Rensburg were false and baseless.

Iozzo said the evidence disproving the allegations had been provided to SAPS from the beginning, as soon as they were notified of the allegations against them. Despite having that evidence, SAPS failed to properly consider or act on it.

“These charges should never have proceeded. That raises extremely serious questions about how SAPS handled this investigation and why charges of this magnitude were allowed to proceed despite the evidence already provided,” Iozzo said.

Separately, SAPS published false, baseless and damaging allegations about Iozzo, Roets and Van Rensburg. Iozzo challenged those statements immediately in the high court on an extremely urgent basis and obtained an interim order requiring SAPS to remove its publication.

When the matter returned to court, state counsel confirmed that the source of material information published by SAPS could not be found in the police docket or in the complainants’ sworn statements.

“In other words, SAPS published allegations that could not be supported by the very criminal case on which its publication was supposedly based. That should never happen,” Iozzo said.

“The public places enormous trust in SAPS. When the police publicly accuse people of serious criminal wrongdoing, the public and the media are entitled to believe those allegations have been properly checked, verified and supported by evidence. That responsibility was not met here.”

Iozzo will now institute a substantial damages claim against the state for the reputational and financial damage caused by the false and baseless statements published by SAPS.

The separate perjury complaints laid against Nicola Iozzo and Hutchinson are now in the final stages of investigation.

Iozzo said there is documentary evidence contradicting material statements they made under oath.

“Perjury is a serious criminal offence and these are not minor or technical allegations,” said Iozzo.

“Based on the strength of the evidence and the feedback I have received regarding the investigation, I fully expect both Nicola and Greg to be arrested and charged with perjury.

“If convicted, they would face the serious consequences of a criminal conviction, including a criminal record and the possibility of a fine or imprisonment.”

From the beginning, I maintained that the evidence would establish the truth. It has—  Antonio Iozzo, founder and CEO of Alpha

Throughout the matter, Alpha has continued to operate normally and without interruption, with no impact on its business or service to brokers and clients.

“From the beginning, I maintained that the evidence would establish the truth. It has,” Iozzo said.