Tannenbaum: warrant issued for arrest
South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has announced in Parliament that a warrant has been issued for the arrest of alleged Ponzi scheme mastermind Barry Tannenbaum.Tannenbaum is believed to be living in Sydney…but Gordhan told parliament he would be arrested soon according to the
Mail and Guardian Online.
Pravin said: “It now appears the scheme involves approximately 12.5 billion rand [A$1.75 billion]. Bloomberg have reported that Tannenbaum’s lawyer in South Africa will instruct Tannenbaum to plead not guilty once charges have been laid.
Gordhan told parliament that 794 investors were involved and “the scheme involved at least eight foreign jurisdictions.”
A spokeman for the Attorney-General in Canberra told J-Wire: “Australia is able to consider extradition requests from countries which are declared to be an ‘extradition country’ under the Extradition Act 1988 (Cth). South Africa is declared to be an extradition country by the Extradition (South Africa) Regulations.
The Australian Government does not disclose whether it has received or made an extradition request until the time of arrest or extradition proceedings.
This avoids providing the person the opportunity to flee the jurisdiction.
Any extradition request received from South Africa would be dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the Extradition Act 1988 (Cth) and the Extradition Treaty between Australia and the South Africa.
It would be inappropriate for me to comment on specific cases.”
