A millionaire businessman from the UAE said it was like a spell had been cast on him from the moment he met Tag Yachts SA managing director Tim van der Steene at a boat show in France.
He fell in love with the yacht he was promised and the prospect of making money by investing in a boatbuilding company.
But testifying in Gqeberha’s specialised commercial crimes court on Monday, Sultan Ahmed Chunoum Al-Hameli, 66, said it was not long before he was met with excuses, and when the delivery date for his luxury yacht kept being pushed back, he realised he was allegedly being duped.
“I was 60 years old at the time and I had many years of business experience.
“I didn’t think I could be scammed, but it soon became clear to me that I was [allegedly] being misled.
“I felt embarrassed,” Al-Hameli said.
Van der Steene, 51, and Tag Yachts SA’s former financial director, Ryan Osborne, 37, face charges of fraud to the tune of more than R27m, as well as a charge of reckless trading.
The pair are accused of defrauding at least two clients out of millions of rand by failing to deliver their 50-foot luxury yachts as promised.
Both men pleaded not guilty to the charges.
With the start of the trial on Monday, state prosecutor Lise Keech handed in thousands of pages of bank statements, financial reports and written correspondence between Al-Hameli and the accused, documenting their dealings between September 2013 and September 2017.
Afterwards Al-Hameli took to the stand and detailed how he was mesmerised by Tag Yachts SA and Van der Steene when they first met the Cannes Boat Show in 2013.
Al-Hameli told the court he was looking to upgrade from the yacht he already owned, and was heading to Cannes to sign a deal with a French yacht manufacturer when he came across Tag Yachts SA’s stand at the show.
He was directed to the marina where one of the company’s 60-foot yachts was moored, and he sailed with the captain and Van der Steene the next day to test it out.
He was so impressed with the vessel and Van der Steene that he said it was like they “had cast a spell” on him, and the following day they started discussions to manufacture a smaller 50-foot version of the luxury yacht.
His initial offer to invest in a company that would exclusively build the smaller Tag 50 was rejected, but he was offered a 15% discount as his boat would be the first of its kind to be built.
However, Van der Steene later got back to Al-Hameli and agreed to start Tag Yachts 50 SA with a large financial injection from the UAE businessman, who would get a brand new yacht at cost price and 30% shares of the new company.
Not long afterwards, the “excuses and apologies” started, and Al-Hameli found it increasingly difficult to get clarity on the progress of his yacht, despite already paying millions of rand to Tag Yachts 50 SA.
After appointing an auditor and commissioning his own forensic investigation, Al-Hameli allegedly uncovered a string of financial discrepancies and business dealing he had never agreed to when entering into business with Van der Steene.
Money he had paid to the company was allegedly diverted to Van der Steene’s other company Tag Yachts SA and large transactions were made without Al-Hameli’s consent.
He said he also received funds paid to the company by other customers waiting for yachts to be completed.
The trial continues.
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