The argument over when MyBucks tipped into insolvency is really a contest over responsibility: Dave Van Niekerk says the group was financially viable when his team exited in March 2019, while liquidators, counterparties and court filings point to a company already “functionally insolvent” under his watch, with alleged subsidiary stripping and intra-group transfers at the heart of the dispute. What is not in doubt is the wreckage: MyBucks S.A. in Luxembourg was placed into bankruptcy by the tax authority in February 2022, and Ecsponent, exposed to MyBucks equity, booked a R1.5 billion loss that ultimately landed on noteholders. The brief also flags a €41.8 million negative equity figure and a wider orbit of distressed linked entities, raising governance questions without, on their own, proving causation. The problem is that the decisive evidence remains either missing or only partly surfaced: the Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr forensic report, the Luxembourg bankruptcy petition and creditor schedules, clarity on recovery rates for noteholders, and what regulators knew and when. Until those records map authority and cash flows across 2019-2022, the story stays stuck as duelling narratives-despite the very real losses already locked in.
