News24.com | Tariomix liquidator attacked, shot at while travelling to Pretoria - reports

Liquidator Advocate Vaughn Victor has reportedly been the victim of an attempted hit.

• Liquidator advocate Vaughn Victor was reportedly shot at on Thursday night.
• He was reportedly travelling to Pretoria from OR Tambo International Airport at the time of the attack.
• Victor was unharmed in the incident.

Liquidator advocate Vaughn Victor has reportedly survived an attempt on his life.

Victor, the liquidator of Tariomix, Forever Diamonds & Gold (FDG), owned by diamond merchant Louis Liebenberg, was shot at on Thursday night while travelling alone to Pretoria from OR Tambo International Airport. 

Netwerk24 reported that he returned fire, but was unharmed in the shooting.

Fin24 previously reported that the company was placed under provisional liquidation in February in an urgent application brought by two investors who say they never received their promised payouts.

Tariomix finances the buying and selling of diamonds by soliciting funds from a pool of what it says are thousands of joint venture partners.  

Tariomix has denied it is insolvent. 

Reward

Sean Newman, Liebenberg's spokesperson, said he was aware of the incident.

He added that Liebenberg is offering a R100 000 reward for information that will lead to the successful arrest and prosecution of the shooters.

He is also offering to pay for an independent forensic and ballistics investigation, should the police agree to make the vehicle and case details available, said Newman.

Police had not confirmed the incident at the time of publication.

Newman added that Liebenberg does not harbour any ill feelings towards Victor and will tackle him in court.

"While Louis may get hot-tempered and say things in the heat of the moment, the last thing he would ever do is wish harm on someone," said Newman.

Newman added that there are "other estates [Victor] is involved in" and has interrogated "thousands of people". Newman also said that Victor had received threats on his life prior to any legal action involving Liebenberg.

Interim injunction

According to Netwerk, Victor recently obtained an interim injunction against Liebenberg and his associates after they claimed they had been subjected to defamation, threats and intimidation. Victor also reportedly alleged that he had received death threats.

Victor has also been involved in the liquidation of bitcoin Ponzi scheme Mirror Trading International (MTI).

MTI's liquidators recently reached a R283 million settlement with the SA Revenue Service (SARS) after months of negotiations around a claim of R931 million in back taxes and penalties. The company collapsed in December 2020 after it stopped paying out funds to tens of thousands of members.

The attack on Victor comes after well-known insolvency practitioner Cloete Murray and his son Thomas were murdered in March. They were shot while in Murray's vehicle just after the New Road offramp on the N1 north in Gauteng. 

News24 previously reported that Murray worked on high-profile cases such as state-capture linked Bosasa and Trillian. He was also the provisional liquidator of airline Comair.

Victor could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.