South African intrigue in Szczecin
If there's one city that needs news like that in Poland, it's the northwestern Szczecin, whose core industry of shipbuilding has been ravaged in recent years.
The players in these dizzyingly ambitious plans for the city were reported to be four companies forming an international consortium: the Cape Town-based Deutsche Africa were to spearhead the campaign, followed by South African compatriots LPRS, the British concern Anderson Capital and the Polish Tyger Developer, who were due to coordinate the projects. The Szczecin local authority were represented at press conferences to announce these grand ventures in the form of its President Marian Jurczyk and Vice President Mirosław Czesny. Indeed, letters of intent were drafted which set out the principles that would govern the council's cooperation with Deutsche Africa et al. According to reports in the Polish press, the proposed investment was to represent Marian Jurczyk's major entrepreneurial coup since taking office.
Any investment of the size Century City was claiming to be will always be a source of keen interest for a real estate publication, but Lokale Immobila became a bit puzzled over the affair after a simple Google search failed to track down even one of the companies said to be involved in the project. But eventually, after typing in www.tygerdeveloper.pl, we entered a website in Polish which featured a mass of chaotically presented information, which was somehow linked to the Century City scheme. We contacted the number at the bottom of the web page and asked to speak to one of the executives at the forefront of the enterprise. The polite young woman at the other end of the line said that Jorg Duske, the leader of the consortium, was currently in South Africa but that she would inform him of our interest in the scheme so that he might get back to us. That never happened. After several subsequent attempts to phone the same number over a four- to five-day period, we were answered by another woman who told us that though this had been Tyger Developer's office, the company had since moved and she didn't know of any new address or telephone number.
We continued to visit the same website, however, and on one such occasion came across an email address for Deutsche Africa and a telephone number. This eventually led to a series of telephone conversations with Stephen Toering, who claimed to be the ex-managing director of Deutsche Africa, which he stated was in the process of liquidation.
Mr Toering explained that he and German national Jorg Duske had established Deutsche Africa in Cape Town in December 2003 as a 'shelf' company. The relationship very quickly broke down, however, he said. Expressing amazement at how the Szczecin local authorities could have become involved with Duske, Toering stated that Deutsche Africa could not have carried out the Century City project (which he insists he was never personally involved in) because "the first point is that we [Deutsche Africa] don't have the funds for it." The firm in South Africa, he continued, "had to close down because, although funds were promised from the Duske Group [there is no website nor contact details available via a Google search for this either], they never materialized. So all that happened is that we ran up a pile of debt and owe a lot of professions money by putting together a lot of developments in work stages but not buying anything, and the whole pack of cards fell." When he and Duske teamed up, he maintains, the plan was that the latter was to fund developments in Cape Town to the tune of zł.5.99 million (SAR 10 million) by the end of the second quarter of 2004 and then another zł.5.99 million (SAR 10 million) by the second quarter of 2005; zł.599,000 (SAR 1 million) a year was pledged to provide for the company's day-to-day administration. In effect, said Toering, "only 250,000 was ever sent over [from Germany] and 20,000 was mortgaged from a house he [Duske] had bought here [in Cape Town]. And that's all the money that ever came in and the rest is just a sham and a fa~ade. When it became clear that no new funds were going to come in and he made it clear that it had all been just a 'plan,' he said he was going to liquidate the company, which he never did, and then left the country on June 25 and went back to Germany." Toering now says that he is taking legal action in South Africa against Duske, who, he claims, he has since learnt has "a litany of failed companies that's as long as my arm." Asked about his own complicity in the Deutsche Africa debacle, he admitted that he had "failed" to properly check out Duske's credentials and that that was "a black mark against my name."
Back in Poland, the local newspaper Kurier Szczeciński reported that it had come across documents which made it clear that any links with enterprises run by Jorg Duske were 'high risk' and that part of one of the companies he was involved in, in Berlin, was in the process of liquidation. Both Duske and the Szczecin city authorities attempted to reassure the public and press that the Berlin business had "nothing to do with anything in South Africa."
More intrigue was to follow as far as the Tyger Developer 'company' was concerned. Its Polish representative, Robert Chrzanowski, was, according to Kurier Szczeciński, someone "who had been on the wrong side of the law" and was convicted of illegal possession of arms in 2003. This didn't prevent him appearing alongside Marian Jurczyk at press conferences, though.
Lokale made an enquiry to the Johannesburg office of architects' Stauch Vorster, whose name appears on the Tyger Developer website, about whether they were involved in the scheme at all. Their representative, Paul Symondson, replied that "to the best of my knowledge we are not," but also informed us that he had noticed the name Martin Wragge during an Internet search on the subject of the Szczecin project. This name he recognized as "the South African developer of a shopping and entertainment mega mall, office park and residential development close to Tyger Valley in Cape Town. I'm sure that must be the link [between Wragge and the Polish Tyger Developer]!" he wrote in an e-mail to Lokale. The center's name in Cape Town is indeed Century City and was developed by Wragge's firm Monex. Back in 2001, Wragge was investigated for insider trading and "after selling 85,000 of his shares in the company [Monex] in June," according to the South African-based Moneyweb on August 17, 2001, "avoided telling the rest of the board about the transaction until the August 15." Wragge denied these charges in an open reply to the publication on August 31, 2001 and stated that he had "sold the small parcel of shares, amounting to 1.33 percent (one comma three three percent) of my personal shareholding, to meet a personal contractual obligation, and no more."
There is surely more to come out of this story, whether or not (as seems most likely) Century City in Szczecin ever breaks ground.
The players in these dizzyingly ambitious plans for the city were reported to be four companies forming an international consortium: the Cape Town-based Deutsche Africa were to spearhead the campaign, followed by South African compatriots LPRS, the British concern Anderson Capital and the Polish Tyger Developer, who were due to coordinate the projects. The Szczecin local authority were represented at press conferences to announce these grand ventures in the form of its President Marian Jurczyk and Vice President Mirosław Czesny. Indeed, letters of intent were drafted which set out the principles that would govern the council's cooperation with Deutsche Africa et al. According to reports in the Polish press, the proposed investment was to represent Marian Jurczyk's major entrepreneurial coup since taking office.
Any investment of the size Century City was claiming to be will always be a source of keen interest for a real estate publication, but Lokale Immobila became a bit puzzled over the affair after a simple Google search failed to track down even one of the companies said to be involved in the project. But eventually, after typing in www.tygerdeveloper.pl, we entered a website in Polish which featured a mass of chaotically presented information, which was somehow linked to the Century City scheme. We contacted the number at the bottom of the web page and asked to speak to one of the executives at the forefront of the enterprise. The polite young woman at the other end of the line said that Jorg Duske, the leader of the consortium, was currently in South Africa but that she would inform him of our interest in the scheme so that he might get back to us. That never happened. After several subsequent attempts to phone the same number over a four- to five-day period, we were answered by another woman who told us that though this had been Tyger Developer's office, the company had since moved and she didn't know of any new address or telephone number.
We continued to visit the same website, however, and on one such occasion came across an email address for Deutsche Africa and a telephone number. This eventually led to a series of telephone conversations with Stephen Toering, who claimed to be the ex-managing director of Deutsche Africa, which he stated was in the process of liquidation.
Mr Toering explained that he and German national Jorg Duske had established Deutsche Africa in Cape Town in December 2003 as a 'shelf' company. The relationship very quickly broke down, however, he said. Expressing amazement at how the Szczecin local authorities could have become involved with Duske, Toering stated that Deutsche Africa could not have carried out the Century City project (which he insists he was never personally involved in) because "the first point is that we [Deutsche Africa] don't have the funds for it." The firm in South Africa, he continued, "had to close down because, although funds were promised from the Duske Group [there is no website nor contact details available via a Google search for this either], they never materialized. So all that happened is that we ran up a pile of debt and owe a lot of professions money by putting together a lot of developments in work stages but not buying anything, and the whole pack of cards fell." When he and Duske teamed up, he maintains, the plan was that the latter was to fund developments in Cape Town to the tune of zł.5.99 million (SAR 10 million) by the end of the second quarter of 2004 and then another zł.5.99 million (SAR 10 million) by the second quarter of 2005; zł.599,000 (SAR 1 million) a year was pledged to provide for the company's day-to-day administration. In effect, said Toering, "only 250,000 was ever sent over [from Germany] and 20,000 was mortgaged from a house he [Duske] had bought here [in Cape Town]. And that's all the money that ever came in and the rest is just a sham and a fa~ade. When it became clear that no new funds were going to come in and he made it clear that it had all been just a 'plan,' he said he was going to liquidate the company, which he never did, and then left the country on June 25 and went back to Germany." Toering now says that he is taking legal action in South Africa against Duske, who, he claims, he has since learnt has "a litany of failed companies that's as long as my arm." Asked about his own complicity in the Deutsche Africa debacle, he admitted that he had "failed" to properly check out Duske's credentials and that that was "a black mark against my name."
Back in Poland, the local newspaper Kurier Szczeciński reported that it had come across documents which made it clear that any links with enterprises run by Jorg Duske were 'high risk' and that part of one of the companies he was involved in, in Berlin, was in the process of liquidation. Both Duske and the Szczecin city authorities attempted to reassure the public and press that the Berlin business had "nothing to do with anything in South Africa."
More intrigue was to follow as far as the Tyger Developer 'company' was concerned. Its Polish representative, Robert Chrzanowski, was, according to Kurier Szczeciński, someone "who had been on the wrong side of the law" and was convicted of illegal possession of arms in 2003. This didn't prevent him appearing alongside Marian Jurczyk at press conferences, though.
Lokale made an enquiry to the Johannesburg office of architects' Stauch Vorster, whose name appears on the Tyger Developer website, about whether they were involved in the scheme at all. Their representative, Paul Symondson, replied that "to the best of my knowledge we are not," but also informed us that he had noticed the name Martin Wragge during an Internet search on the subject of the Szczecin project. This name he recognized as "the South African developer of a shopping and entertainment mega mall, office park and residential development close to Tyger Valley in Cape Town. I'm sure that must be the link [between Wragge and the Polish Tyger Developer]!" he wrote in an e-mail to Lokale. The center's name in Cape Town is indeed Century City and was developed by Wragge's firm Monex. Back in 2001, Wragge was investigated for insider trading and "after selling 85,000 of his shares in the company [Monex] in June," according to the South African-based Moneyweb on August 17, 2001, "avoided telling the rest of the board about the transaction until the August 15." Wragge denied these charges in an open reply to the publication on August 31, 2001 and stated that he had "sold the small parcel of shares, amounting to 1.33 percent (one comma three three percent) of my personal shareholding, to meet a personal contractual obligation, and no more."
There is surely more to come out of this story, whether or not (as seems most likely) Century City in Szczecin ever breaks ground.
