Follows a criminal complaint by Mantengu Mining that its share price was manipulated downwards to disrupt its acquisition of Blue Ridge Platinum. From Moneyweb.
The JSE has issued a cease and desist demand to Mantengu Mining following a criminal complaint alleging key members of the exchange were protecting a syndicate involved in share price manipulation.
“Mantengu believes that there is a centrally controlled, tightly run and fronted syndicate that is central to Mantengu’s share price manipulation. Mantengu believes that the intention of the syndicate was to disrupt its acquisition of Blue Ridge [Platinum],” says Mantengu’s criminal complaint.
“Given the scale, absurdity, and how obvious the share price anomalies have been, Mantengu is of the opinion that certain individuals within the JSE are corrupt and protecting the syndicate.”
Complaints based ‘on conjecture and speculation’
The JSE, through attorneys Webber Wentzel, fired back over the weekend, denying that it or any of its executives were involved in share price manipulation, and that the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) is the appropriate body to investigate such claims. The FSCA is expected to issue a report into the allegations shortly.
“Notwithstanding that the FSCA’s investigation remains ongoing, and a final report is expected imminently, you have prematurely and without following the appropriate channels, elected to publicise a criminal complaint and make several public announcements regarding alleged share price manipulation implicating our client. This is unacceptable in circumstances where the basis of the complaints made against our client are based on conjecture and speculation,” says the JSE in its letter of demand to Mantengu.
“There is no basis to target individual JSE employees, certain of which are either nonexecutive directors, and others who have simply carried out their functions and duties in the scope of their employment as part of the Market or Issuer Regulation divisions. This conduct is to cease immediately.
“Should you continue in your efforts to besmirch our clients, we will have no hesitation to adopt the strongest course of action against you as permitted by law.”
The JSE says Mantengu may have misused the Sens platform “as a means to spread the false allegations as far and wide as possible”.
It has demanded that Mantengu cease defaming the exchange, issue a formal apology and retraction of its statements implicating the JSE, and remove the Sens statement detailing its criminal complaint.
Failure to do so will result in the JSE launching legal action for damages.
Liberty Coal also hits back at Mantengu
Several others were also named in Mantengu’s criminal complaint, including Liberty Coal (which operates Optimum Coal) and some of its directors.
Liberty Coal also hit back with a demand that Mantengu and its CEO Mike Miller issue an apology by close of business on Monday 12 May 2025 or face legal consequences, including charges of defamation and a damages claim.
Moneyweb previously reported on the claims of share price manipulation directed at the former Mantengu financial director, Ulrich Bester, now chief financial officer at Liberty Coal. He is also one of Mantengu’s largest shareholders.
Read: Who’s shorting Mantengu Mining?
Bester and Liberty Coal have repeatedly denied any involvement in manipulating Mantengu’s share price.
Bester told Moneyweb that it would make no sense for him to depress the price of his own shares and net worth.
In its response to Mantengu, Liberty Coal accuses Miller of being a “delusional fantasist” who has made defamatory allegations without providing evidence.
“Liberty Coal, and no doubt others, will be seeking full redress in law from both him personally and Mantengu for such harm.
“Regrettably, it will ultimately also be the shareholders in Mantengu that suffer when Mr Miller’s delusional fantasies are proven to be just that,” says Liberty Coal in a statement.
“Mr Miller and/or Mantengu furthermore claim to have lodged a formal criminal complaint against what is said to be a syndicate ‘fronted’ by, among others, Liberty Coal but has provided no further details in that regard. By leaking his alleged criminal complaint to the media, he attempts to both bypass and pre-empt legal due process, seemingly without proper or any care for the consequences of his conduct.”
Liberty Coal says it intends to launch legal actions against Miller and Mantengu for defamation, damages, and an urgent interdict to prevent further defamatory comments.
Share manipulation a plot to disrupt expansion plans
Mantengu has alleged its shares are being manipulated downwards to disrupt its expansion plans.
In January 2024, Mantengu received approval for a R500 million equity facility from an offshore funder, GEM, which allows it to issue shares for cash as it is drawn down.
The lower the share price, the more the Mantengu shares are diluted.
A lower share price would also add regulatory complexities and delays to acquisitions, since the JSE may classify target acquisitions as Category One, meaning higher transactional costs and added delays – forcing Mantengu to potentially abort the deal.
No evidence of possible manipulation identified
In a response to Moneyweb, the JSE says it had previously reviewed Mantengu’s claims of share price manipulation.
“Either no evidence of possible price manipulation warranting a referral to the FSCA by the JSE was identified through these reviews, and the finding was conveyed to Mantengu, or the relevant trading activity is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the FSCA.
“The JSE also informed Mantengu that if [it] believed that there had been manipulation of its share price it could approach the FSCA directly, as the appropriate body, to investigate its complaint, which Mantengu did.”
Read: No getting away with manipulating share prices
Mantengu’s complaint details an instance where a major shareholder was approached by the JSE to borrow shares. The JSE says there is nothing untoward in lending and borrowing shares to facilitate trade settlement.
“The JSE’s lawful actions to ensure settlement of transactions on its exchange were necessary for the proper and efficient functioning of its market and did not facilitate an ‘unmatched illegal naked short’, or another type of unlawful transaction,” says the JSE.
Naked shorts are illegal in most countries and are seen as a type of price manipulation. This is where shares are sold by a trader who does not own or has not borrowed them, with a view to making a profit by buying the shares back at a lower price. This is what Mantengu alleges has been happening to its shares.
Read:
SA’s new rules on short selling come up … short
EU urged to scrap rules that force short-sellers out of shadows
The JSE says that when it conducts securities lending and borrowing with market participants, this does not necessarily mean the shares are being used for short selling.
There are instances where market participants own the securities they are selling, but they experience administrative challenges in ensuring that the securities are available to be delivered on the settlement date.
