The criminal case against former estate agent Wendy Machanik was postponed by the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Friday as she has run out of funds, her lawyer said.
Attorney Cyril Ziman said the case was postponed to May 30.
Machanik, the close corporation Wendy Machanik Property Holdings, and its chief financial officer Bruce Bernstein are charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, among other things.
Their previous court appearance on March 6 was postponed to allow them to make representations on the charges to the National Prosecuting Authority.
“She Machanik however has run out of funds to finance her litigation and so the representations were unable to be prepared,” Ziman said.
“We have since been placed in funds from Tuesday, and are in a position to proceed with representations,” he said.
Ziman represents Machanik, Bernstein and the close corporation.
Machanik is out on bail of R25,000 and Bernstein is out on R5000 bail.
They are charged with failing to keep accounting records and failing to reflect 116 transfers between the trust account and business account.
The second charge is for failing to have accounting records audited for 2008, 2009 and 2010. The alternative charge is failing to cause financial statements to be made out for 2008 and 2009.
The third count is for failing to notify the board of each trust account that was opened.
The final charge is for conspiracy to commit fraud.
They allegedly made irregular transfers totalling R28 million from Wendy Machanik Property Holdings, to a fictitious account.
Machanik allegedly used this money to keep her company afloat and for personal expenses.
The High Court in Johannesburg declared Wendy Machanik Property Holdings provisionally insolvent in February.
In January, the high court ruled Machanik should not be granted a fidelity fund certificate for 2011, which would have allowed her to operate as an estate agent.
The move followed a successful court application by the Estate Agency Affairs Board in December to place the agency's trust accounts under curatorship, following the alleged financial irregularities in the management of the accounts. - Sapa
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