Harry Giannacopoulos at the police station in Pietermaritzburg. (Photo: Provided)
Two more members of Spar’s top management now also stand trial on possible charges of fraud and perjury.
A total of five senior management members have already been charged over the alleged illegal takeover of Spar supermarkets owned and operated by the Giannacopoulos group.
This follows after Chris Giannacopoulos and his family’s group companies filed charges of fraud and perjury against three top management members in Gauteng in December last year with the help of AfriForum’s private prosecution unit.
More charges were laid in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday.
“Spar acted criminally and unethically against my family, and we want justice to be served,” Harry Giannacopoulos said outside the Pietermaritzburg police station earlier today.
The cases were filed in separate provinces due to the jurisdiction of the affected stores.
Chris and Harry and their family’s group companies accuse the respective managers of misrepresentations and failure to appear in two of the country’s highest courts.
It is alleged that in 2019 the Spar group falsely indicated in affidavits by its managers that companies in the Giannacopoulos group owed them money, in order to convince the courts to give the Spar group control over the supermarkets owned by the Giannacopoulos companies are owned.
These alleged misrepresentations were upheld by the same high courts when the Giannacopoulos group successfully challenged the wrongful takeover.
Rhewal earlier reported that the Giannacopoulos group claimed that Spar had deliberately failed to disclose to the court that the Giannacopoulos group’s retailer membership had been terminated without a hearing, as promised by the Spar group, taking place.
According to the group, there were also false statements made about development loans, wrongly suggesting that the Giannacopoulos group was in debt to the Spar group.
These alleged misrepresentations were repeated in several subpoenas issued against companies in the Giannacopoulos group.
In accordance with court orders and based on the alleged misrepresentations, Spar then took steps to take over the stores in 2019. The stores were later placed under this group’s control again after a successful urgent court application by the Giannacopoulos group.
