News24.com | Court orders curator of diamond dealer Louis Liebenberg's business to explain what he's been doing

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The Mahikeng High Court has ordered that a curator appointed by the SA Revenue Service (SARS) to oversee Gauteng diamond dealer Louis Liebenberg's company Tariomix to explain what he has been doing for the past two years. 

The court this week dismissed a bid by Tariomix to overturn its provisional liquidation. 

The company, which trades as Forever Diamonds and Gold, finances the buying and selling of diamonds by soliciting funds from a pool of what it says are thousands of joint venture partners.  

It was placed into provisional liquidation in February in an urgent application brought by two investors who say they never received their promised payouts. 

Tariomix then approached the court on 12 April to set aside the decision, arguing it was not insolvent and hadn't been given an opportunity to argue its case in February. 

Meanwhile, lawyers for SARS argued that the initial liquidation order should be overturned as Tariomix already had a curator bonis appointed in 2021. The tax agency said the curator should have been included in the initial liquidation application but wasn't. 

The two investors who brought the liquidation bid said they weren't aware a curator had been appointed and reached out to him as soon as they found out.  

Presiding Judge Tebogo Djaje this week dismissed both Tariomix's and SARS's applications, saying they failed to make out a case that the provisional liquidation be set aside. 

Liebenberg, who before the matter was heard last week told Tariomix investors to "ignore letters from the liquidators" has not yet reacted to the ruling on a social media page created to share updates with followers.  

Djaje did not make a ruling on whether Tariomix should be placed into final liquidation, saying she first needed to hear from the curator bonis, Zaheer Cassim. He has been given 30 days to file an affidavit on the status of Tariomix. 

While Tariomix's lawyers denied last week that the company was insolvent, the liquidators say it has hundreds of millions of rands of debt.