{"product_id":"vbs-a-dream-defrauded","title":"VBS - A Dream Defrauded","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOriginally the Venda Building Society, VBS Mutual Bank was a small, little-known lender in Limpopo before it rocketed from obscurity in 2016 by giving President Jacob Zuma a controversial home loan to repay the state for improvements to his Nkandla homestead. The bank was growing rapidly and sold itself as a fearless champion of black advancement. Its owner, Vele Investments, was on a meteoritic trajectory towards becoming a financial conglomerate worthy of national attention.\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhen the bank abruptly went into curatorship in March 2018, no one had any reason to doubt that it was just another unfortunate corporate failure. Then the astonishing truth emerged: the collapse of VBS was due to an epic R2-billion fraud that had created Vele’s empire out of thin air and left the bank a hollow shell.\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eVBS: A Dream Defrauded\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eunravels the fraud, exploring how mastermind Tshifhiwe Matodzi and his associates first took control of VBS, fed off ANC patronage networks and operated under a nationalist mantle endorsed by Venda royalty. The book explains how the bank and its shareholder Vele were seemingly built into a multibillion-rand business; exposes the political machinations that guaranteed VBS up to R3.5 billion in unlawful funding from municipalities and other state institutions; and describes the free-for-all that ensued after the bank’s collapse when all involved tried to cover their tracks.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWritten by one of the journalists who first broke the story, this is a compelling account of a bank heist whose shockwaves continue to haunt the politicians, businessmen and traditional leaders who enabled it\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Booksite Afrika","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39308123603029,"sku":"9781776095445","price":280.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0105\/0053\/8453\/products\/download-2_adbfd0cf-50cc-46ad-b253-2bfa0d06ed13.jpg?v=1617196129","url":"https:\/\/vikas-test.myshopify.com\/ne\/products\/vbs-a-dream-defrauded","provider":"Vikas Test","version":"1.0","type":"link"}