Mamia walizwa na DECI kwa Mzee Madiba

• At least 200 investors involved
• Purchase orders for AIDS drugs allegedly faked
• *Could be S.Africa's biggest corporate fraud
• Investors from U.S., Australia, Germany, S.Africa

JOHANNESBURG, June 11, Hundreds of investors have lost money in what could be South Africa's biggest corporate fraud, worth up to 10 billion rand ($1.24 billion), a private investigator and lawyer said on Thursday.

The fraud was spearheaded by Barry Tannenbaum, the South African son of one of the founders of pharmaceuticals firm Adcock Ingram, and is still unravelling, they said.

Investigator Specialised Services Group (SSG), hired by investors to look into Tannenbaum, said he persuaded investors to plough money into a pharmaceutical ingredient import business and faked purchase orders from firms including Africa's biggest generic drug maker, Aspen.

Products included ingredients for life-prolonging anti-retroviral AIDS drugs, and Tannenbaum offered annual returns of up to 200 percent, said SSG, which published documents and emails related to the scheme on its website.

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