My story is a bit complex but I'll try my best to explain as best as I can. 

My story has two parts to it:

Part 1:

I'm the first in my family to graduate with a degree and have a white collar job. In my first job as an intern, I met a man. I was 21 years old, this man's name is Nyasha, he took liking to me and we become extremely close, I've always seen him as a older brother and he really helped me navigate this whole corporate world that I wasn't familiar with. He helped me with everything, including doing my taxes, being the reference on my CV in fact there is nothing he wouldn't do for me and I did the same. 

When I was 24 he asked if I could open a company in my name for him to operate, at that time he did not have the necessary paper work to do so as an immigrant in South Africa. Fast forward to 2022, I decide to study onboard in Canada before leaving he asked if I could take out, 2 vehicles to enable his business, the vehicle's are financed under my name, and the debit orders come to my account. In April of this year he started to have problems paying for the cars, he kept making promises that he would pay the next month and never did, until finally I was taken to debt collectors, he agreed to sell one of the vehicles and the bank refinanced the debt. Since the debt has been refinanced he has not made payment. Its been a couple of months and the vehicle he remained with he also has not payments in full just a few amounts here and there, We've been having arguments with him because I want him to return the vehicle and just leave me with debt I can handle considering he can not afford anything.

A few days I asked about payment and told him I would call the bank and ask them to repossess the vehicle, he become arrogant, laughed at me and threaten me. He says he has invested over 150k in the vehicle and won't let it go unless I give him that amount of money. His threat to me was if he loses that car, you'll make sure I lose half of everything as well, has it enables business and is his source of income. 

Part 2

A lady finds me on LinkedIn her opening statement 'Are you aware that your company is involved in fraud worth 450k. As it turns out Nyasha goes around using vulnerable women, taking their money and then blocking their number. Below are the two links of the story of these woman and what Nyasha did to them. 

https://www.hellopeter.com/tetrawits-analytics 

Realizing my mistake, and accepting that I was just a pawn in Nyasha's schemes, I plan to have the Police pick up the car, I'll tell the bank of my decision to sell and remain with the debt. I'm also looking at way to close the company. 

My question is legally is there anything Nyasha can do to me has he threatened to ensure that I lose half of everything, secondly while I gather information on how to close the company is there a way to stop Nyasha from operating the company, and using the company email addressed as me. 

He is not on the company registration documents, but tells people he does business with he is the principal director. 

Is there any type of legal action I can take to protect myself from this man and my family, my siblings are still in South Africa, he knows where they live. 

How do I get myself out of this mess?

Hi there and thank you for your question,

I am a practicing attorney based in South Africa and I will assist you with your question. Please feel free to ask as many follow up questions in order to clarify your question. If you have a new question, you must please open a new thread.

Please keep in mind that our discussions is for general information purposes only. Our engagement on this website does not create an attorney-client relationship. 

I’m really sorry to hear about your story with this guy. It really does sound (like one of the hellopeter women said) that he is just the next tinder swindler – a fraud, who is looking to con women into loaning him money and then he never pays them back.

It is clear to me that you first need to speak to your accountants (if you do not have one, you must hire one) to close down the two companies at CIPC (the companies office) on the basis that they are insolvent and need to be liquidated. This will effectively “kill” the companies so that they can’t be used any more.

The major risk that you run with letting this guy operate “your” companies, is that you might be held personally liable for the debts, even though you’re not the person operating the companies. This is the reason why you need to close them down and get them off your name.

If the cars were financed through your personal name, then you need to get hold of the banks and tell the banks to issue a summons against you, for the debt, and then you must consent to a court order being granted against you (NOT a default judgment, but a court order by agreement) in terms whereof the bank can legally attach the cars, and then sell them on auction, and then giving you a payment plan to settle any arrear debt on the cars. This is the BEST way to go about it.

The bank must locate the cars through the sheriff of the court, but you must be careful not to tell this man about the court procedure, because then he will definitely hide the cars. It must be a case where the sheriff just arrives one morning to remove the cars.

Q: My question is legally is there anything Nyasha can do to me has he threatened to ensure that I lose half of everything?

A: These are nothing more than hollow threats. He is trying to threaten and scare you in the hopes that you go away and leave him alone. You must not listen to his threats.

Q: Secondly, while I gather information on how to close the company is there a way to stop Nyasha from operating the company, and using the company email addressed as me?

A: No, not really. You could contact the bank (if the company has a bank account) to tell them to close the bank account in the company’s name. But you should speak to the accountants to close the company quickly. There is a voluntary liquidation way to close the company ASAP. It is a CM100 form which is submitted to CIPC.

Q: Is there any type of legal action I can take to protect myself from this man and my family, my siblings are still in South Africa, he knows where they live?

A: Not really. But I do think that you would have a claim against him for any debt that he leaves you with.