Do you know Ivan Penny, Vernon Penny, Samantha Penny or David Romero

Business Day : 7 September 1999 : (Refcorp staggers under cash
problems)

"Controversial venture capital company REF Finance and Investment
Corporation (Refcorp) is staggering under major cash flow problems that
could lead to its liquidation.

Former employees who did not wish to be named have said they have not
been paid for more than two months and that this was just the tip of the
iceberg. The company is apparently also about R4m behind on
pay-as-you earn(PAYE) tax remittances to the Receiver of
Revenue.

Five directors have left the company over the past couple of months for a
variety of reasons which included the nonpayment of salaries.

One employee said the problem with Refcorp was not so much the listed
entity but the underlying, non-listed companies that were draining the
parent’s accounts, balance sheet.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is believed to be investigating
Refcorp and has already interrogated some former directors.

Refcorp was warned by the JSE last week for failing to submit annual financial
statements within six months of the financial year-end. Refcorp deputy
chairman Ivan Penny pleads that the group’s financial director had to go on
maternity leave three weeks sooner than expected and that results would be
released soon.

http://icms.iac.iafrica.com/pls/cms/iac.page?p_t1=1539&p_t2=0&p_t3=0&p_t4=0&p_dynamic
=YP&p_content_id=387980&p_site_id=83

David Romero, who headed Refcorp, a key investor in the laughably named Noble Minerals, is probably one of the worst managers of expectations. Minority shareholders lost their money within days of Noble's listing as the price sank to 1c from a R2/share maiden listing.

and: http://www.dispatch.co.za/2005/03/12/Easterncape/crook.html

Financial adviser says he is not a crook
By Eddie Botha Business Editor
EAST LONDON - Hannes Brink, the financial adviser who is blamed by more than 50 investors for their R10 million losses, says he is not a crook.
Instead Nimrod Financial & Tax Consultants CC's Brink has fingered as the culprits his former partner, David Romero, head of finance company REF Equity Finance, into which the funds were invested, and Ivan Penny, an REF director.

Earlier this week the Daily Dispatch reported that the National Prosecuting Authority in Pretoria had confirmed that an investigation into the financial scheme was almost complete.
Many investors, among them pensioners, have lost their life savings in the scheme, and subsequent to this week's report many more called the newspaper to say that they too had lost large amounts of money.

The Daily Dispatch first reported about the failed scheme in 2001 when Amalinda pensioners Carl and Rosemary Hill, who invested and lost R100000 - their life savings - approached the paper.

Yesterday Brink, who now lives in Nelspruit with his common-law wife and business partner Linden Kelly, denied any responsibility.

When contacted in Pretoria he first said that the target of the investigation was REF Equity Finance, the unlisted company in which he invested the funds.
Later, in a second telephone call to him, Brink said that he was not aware of a current police investigation into the failed investments.

He said, though, he had given investigators copies of all the documents - "but that was three years ago. I have not heard any word from them since then".

Brink said he had merely acted as an agent for the investment company.
"They (the investors) bought the shares (in REF) through me."

Brink said he would be willing to give evidence if required to do so, adding: "I have also lost between R600000 and R700000 with REF.

"The problem lies with the people who handled the portfolio, Romero and Penny," he said."I have done nothing wrong."

Brink added that he did not understand what the sudden fuss was about - over events that took place six years ago.

He said he had sold the Ntoni Game reserve, which he had owned in the Cradock district, to King William's Town businessman Eddie Goetsch, the owner of the Buildrite hardware group.
REF also bought a 50 percent stake in Ntoni.

At one stage when Romero wrote to Eddie Leach - a retired contractor who lost over R210000 in Brink's scheme- to explain the delays in dividend payouts, he used stationery with the stamps of Nimrod and Ntoni.

REF was suspended from the JSE Securities Exchange in 2003 for failing to produce financial statements.

According to a Business Day report in the final quarter of last year shareholders had been trying to contact the company since its suspension - but telephone calls and e-mails went answered.
The report also said that United States-based businessman Albert de Lint had written to Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin asking him to warn South African investors to steer clear of Romero, saying: "We must conclude that investors will soon face the reality that there won't be funds to pay them back."

http://www.suntimes.co.za/2000/09/10/business/companies/comp17.htm

Furthermore, Gullan and Gullan allege that Noble's previous corporate adviser, REF Finance and Investment Corporation as represented by David Romero and Ivan Penny, was "unable to pay over approximately R6.25-million of shareholders' funds which they collected on behalf of the company".

The report says Romero and Penny, a director of Noble until February, signed an acknowledgement of debt to Noble in their personal capacities and as directors of Refcorp and other related companies.