Cranswick said there was a high degree of trust when using the offshore companies because the clients did not have specific account numbers. They had spreadsheets instead where one could check how much money had come in and any charges. If one wanted to transfer money, one simply sent an email with the instructions.
“It’s difficult to (understand) in a first world environment where you haven’t ever had to work like that, but you must bear in mind, in a third world environment, very much you’re dealing on a handshake and trust because you can’t document a lot of these things, because if you document them, then you know the record is there, in the country of offence,” he said.
Cranswick became a central figure in Adonis, recruiting clients for a commission, but he insisted that he did not own or control it. The key player, he said, was Antony Csaszar, or Tony Csaszar, whom he said he had known for years through his brother Stewart, who was now living in Australia.
Csaszar was a stockbroker on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, together with Stewart, in the 1980s and that was when he first met him and they had become “quite good friends”.
“I mean, he is my child’s godfather,” Cranswick said.
Cranswick said Csaszar was a British citizen but was mostly resident in South Africa and Mauritius.
The Insider tracked a Toni Csaszar in South Africa who also owned a company called Adonis Investments Group of Companies but he denied any link to the offshore Adonis Investments Limited that was registered in Mauritius.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange said it was not at liberty to confirm whether Csaszar was a stockbroker on the JSE or not and which company he worked for.
Cranswick told ATO officials that he helped “30, 40, or 50” people to externalise funds through Adonis and he was paid a commission of 25 percent of the profit. But he said Beresford helped hundreds.
“I have met one person from Beresford once. So- and that was their agent, John Jamieson. But basically, they set up for Zimbabwean and South African guys, I think, a lot- hundreds. Okay. As far as I know. Yes, they were very secretive about that kind of thing. Although you trust- once you are in business with someone you trust them, you- you don’t talk in pubs about having offshore accounts, because that’s a crime. You know, you are literally going to go to a terrible jail,” Cranswick said.
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