After returning from Iraq, I went back into working VIP Protection. I joined up with a friend of mine that had an established VIP Protection Training School and I got involved with the training in weapons, unarmed combat skills and surveillance duties for a few months. I did a few courses on risk and security assessments, but I was bored. I needed something else.

In October 2005, I received a call from an old friend who used to work for National Intelligence. He told me he just got employed by an American family/company of two brothers. They were in the process of building a hotel and accommodation resort at the Hole in the Wall on the Wild Coast. They needed security at the complex. A condition of them getting the lease on the wild coast to build and operate a hotel was that they had to employ the local people in that area. He said he told his American employers that he knows the right man to train and employ the locals in the security setup and, for that reason, he called me.

The Wild Coast is in the Eastern Cape, where I grew up. After I left the Eastern Cape, it felt as if I left a piece of myself behind. I also knew the wild coast area well. For the next two months, I travelled between Johannesburg, East London and the wild coast. I had to register a security company, and I met up with the two American brothers at Coffee Bay. I will never forget the one brother’s words when he met me. He said that he came from a very religious family in America, God fearing honest people they were. He was a lawyer in the United States and he would oversee the project from the USA while his other brother will be involved with the project on the ground in South Africa at Hole in the Wall.

The primary condition of my contract was that I train and employ 42 locals in guarding services. My company would then be the service provider for the Americans at Hole in the Wall, where the locals would be working. I signed the two-year contract that was drawn up between the American company and myself.

I decided to leave Johannesburg. Moved to East London and bought a house. At the same time, I rented a house and used it as my company’s office at Hole in the Wall from where I would run the business. I bought a new LDV for the business as the roads in that area were and still are a nightmare. I screened 130 locals for training and had to choose 42 only. After the screening and choosing my guards for training, I had to buy them uniforms. A contact of mine in the training and registering of guards came from Johannesburg to Hole In The Wall, where he trained the guards. I had a bank official come down from Umtata to open bank accounts for all my guards. It was heartwarming to see them having their own bank accounts for the first time ever.

The parents of the people I employed came to thank me for giving their kids a chance in life, and I felt proud of what I had achieved for the locals from the rural area. My savings were running very low by now and we needed to start working and earning.

By now, I was remarried and my spouse was working in Johannesburg at an audit firm as a forensic investigator. She was on the brink of a promotion taking over as the head of the forensic division when I informed her of the contract and the move to East London. She resigned from her company and moved down to East London with me. My brother was running his own business when I approached him and I made him an offer to join me in this venture on the Wild Coast. He also left and closed his business in Johannesburg and moved down with his wife to join me. My brother and I lived at Hole In The Wall while the wives lived in East London.

We started working in December 2005. No building work had started, so I had to work out shifts to accommodate 42 guards guarding the plot where the building was going to take place early in January 2006. The reason for the guarding of the building site was that one of the tribes or clans in the area was not happy about the new development and if they could bury some of their dead on this site, no building would be allowed there.

The American that lived in Coffee Bay had the area fenced off with wire, and my guards had to watch for intruders and prevent damage to the fence. I needed to keep my guards busy, as not all of them could be on guard duty. I decided they should patrol Coffee Bay and Hole In The Wall in their uniforms for any crime related incidents. Within two days, they made citizen’s arrests of two house breakings and some narcotics dealings. They stopped a few fights at the local liquor store and arrested one local that stabbed and killed another.

The local black and white people living in the area were happy and wherever I went in the area, I was praised for the new law enforcement by my guards. I met with the headman and the Chief of the area and they were all thrilled. I noticed that there were a lot of strange bicycles being driven by the locals all over the area. Not the bicycles I am used to that were sold in South Africa. On enquiring about this new type of bicycle, I was told that the American brothers brought in a container full of bicycles from the USA and that they distributed them to some of the lucky locals. It made me think back to Iraq and the American attitude of winning the hearts and the minds of the locals.

At the end of December, I was not paid on time or the amount that I was supposed to receive. The brother in Coffee Bay argued that not all my guards were working. I referred him to the contract that stated 42 guards and I received the outstanding amount. During January 2006, nothing changed. We were still guarding a plot overlooking the Rock in the sea known as hole in the wall. There was no sign of any building that was supposed to take place. I heard through the grapevine there was still politics to be sorted out about the tribe that were not happy with the new development. I was not concerned as I had a two-year contract and if we had to guard a piece of empty land for two years, that was fine by me.

At the end of January and February, I received the correct amounts, but still no movement on any building. Nonetheless, my guards were on duty every day. During March I wanted to discuss some matter with the American brother living in Coffee Bay. I went to the house he was living in and the black woman that worked for him informed me he was gone. She said that he left early in March and she thinks he went to America. I thought nothing of it until the end of that month. No payment came in and I could not get hold of him or his brother via phone or email. I got hold of my old friend that got me the contract and who was also on the Americans payroll. He informed me he had not been paid either. He could not get hold of them on their phones or emails. Alarm bells started going off for me.

I had to pay my guards out of my own account for the time being. Still, we were on duty guarding this empty piece of land with its fence. I heard nothing from the American brothers the following month. Again, I had to pay my guards from my account. By now, everybody was looking for them. By the end of April, I had to make a decision as my funds were close to being depleted. I called a meeting with the guards, their parents, and the headman. They all knew that the Americans were gone, so it was not a shock to them when I told them we will have to stop working for the time being so that I could search for these people. I was honest, and I told them I could not financially carry them for another month as I had done the preceding three months. The guards and their parents, family and the headman knew me by now as a fair person. They knew about the American brothers not paying me and they accepted we had to stop working.

I was embarrassed, upset, and furious. I could also not pay my brother, but he also understood. About two weeks later, I received an email from America from the brother who lived in Coffee Bay. He said he had to go back to America as the FBI had put a hold on their bank accounts for any transfers because of alleged information that the Company the brothers had was funding a terrorist organization in Africa. He had to go back and sort it out and wrote he would be back soon. I replied to him with a long email, demanding his return date and payments that were overdue. He never replied. Another month passed with no news from the Americans.

By now I had to make a final decision on the future of the contract and the guards. I discussed the decision with my brother and we set up a meeting with the guards, the headman and the local counselor, who also knew all the details. I told them I could not wait and stay down at the wild coast any longer and that our contract was over. I told them I would be taking the matter to court and fight it. I told them in the meantime they should all start looking for other work and that they were all trained registered guards. They had the certificates to prove that. I said they could keep the uniforms I gave them.

I left the Wild Coast with a heavy heart. I felt I had failed so many people. The guards became more than just employees to me as I had met their families. Some came to me with personal problems and some for advice whilst we were working together. We were friends. They were happy and full of hope and now they were again with no employment, and myself as well. My financial problems were only just starting. I had a house to pay, vehicles and many other financial commitments.

I lost all my savings on this venture. Together with my then wife, we started doing private investigations. Times were difficult and, as the saying goes. If you think everybody has forgotten about you, just start missing vehicle or bank payments and you will see how many calls you receive. It was a battle to save my house and two vehicles. I had to let one vehicle go, as I could not make the payments anymore. At home, the tension between my wife and I was rising.

My lawyer friend in Johannesburg started a civil action against the Americans, but they were not in the country. I still had contacts at customs and they were on the lookout for when any of the brothers would arrive in South Africa, if ever again, to inform me. I also received information that the lawyer brother was wanted for fraud in the USA and that he was on the run. Things were not getting any better, and I was just surviving. During July of that year, I got the call I was waiting for. The brother that lived in Coffee Bay had landed at Oliver Tambo airport and was back in South Africa. I notified my lawyer, and he had the necessary documents drawn up to serve him for court in my civil matter against him and his brother and their company.

He had the balls to go back to Coffee Bay, but was not received well there. Whilst he was there, he was served to appear in court in my matter. I later heard he left Coffee Bay in a hurry after he was told that his life was in danger there. I heard shots were fired at him one night.

We had our day in court, but I lost the case against them as he claimed he was also just an employee working for his brother, and as far as he knows, the company was a not-for-profit organisation, and he was not a Director of one of the 68 companies that were mentioned. He said he did not know who the company was that was supposed to pay me, even though we showed proof that I was paid by him for the company that he worked for. The magistrate was so confused with all the companies that were now mentioned that he decided I had no case against the brother and that I should have sued the other brother and his companies in the USA. This was a clear-cut and dry case of fraud.

I had no choice but to take the knock and move on.

During August 2012, Justice was served in the USA. Although it did not help me in any way, I at least had the satisfaction that the God fearing, honest lawyer, as he described himself to me at our introductory meeting, was arrested in Canada by Canadian authorities, where he was hiding. He was taken back to the USA, where he was charged with fraud, or what federal prosecutors there called a long-term Ponzi Scheme. He fraudulently obtained $2.25 million from approximately 37 investors and donors, telling them he intended to use the money to establish sustainable development projects in South Africa, providing a livelihood for indigenous communities in the Wild Coast area.

He professed to be a devout Christian; however, so many of his victims were Christians from the evangelical and medical professional communities that stretched from California to South Africa.

He was found guilty and in October 2013 he was sentenced at the USA District court in Norfolk to twelve and a half years’ imprisonment.