Viceroy is unmasked

TEAM: FORMER SOCIAL WORKER, TWO YOUNGSTERS

There are doubts as to whether Viceroy conducts its own research or if it’s merely a front for other investors.

Following an extensive joint investigation by Moneyweb and the Australian Financial Review’s Jonathan Shapiro, we can reveal the identities of those behind Viceroy Research.

The firm published a controversial report on Steinhoff’s skeletons: off balance sheet entities inflating earnings, obscuring losses’ on alleged financial irregularities at Steinhoff the day after the company announced that Markus Jooste resigned as its CEO and that auditors Deloitte refused to sign off the group’s financial statements.

The report, hailed as highly professional and accurate, contributed to the implosion of the Steinhoff share price.

Viceroy seemed to earn the respect of many SA investors. A mere tweet that it will soon publish a report focussed on another JSE-listed company, sent the share prices of Aspen and several property stocks into a sharp decline, as they were deemed possible targets.

Viceroy is headed by a 44-yearold British citizen and ex-social worker John Fraser Perring, and two Australian citizens, both 23 – Gabriel Bernarde and Aidan Lau. Viceroy has been the target of litigation in the US where it has written extensively on the perceived fraud being perpetrated by MiMedx.

Aspen CEO Stephen Saad called for regulators including the JSE and the Financial Services Board (FSB) to investigate the trading in Aspen shares, following its share price collapsing intra-day when rumours that it may be the next target of a Viceroy report began swirling in the market place.

Metadata results

It was through tips from a source that Moneyweb was led to the UK where a company by the name of Ganadabi Limited was registered as a private company on August 29 last year. The company’s commercial activities were listed as ‘other publishing activities’.

The company listed three directors: Gabriel Bernarde, Aidan Lau and Fraser John Perring.

Perring appears to have no previous involvement in financial markets. There are also questions surrounding his character. He was employed as a social worker in Lincolnshire in the United Kingdom until he left under a cloud of controversy in 2014.

With the ongoing investigation Moneyweb has been conducting, there are doubts as to whether Viceroy conducts its own research or if it is merely a front for other investors that seek to avoid the limelight but profit from it.

Backstory

Between the Australian Financial Review and Moneyweb, we ascertained the identities of the three men this week and engaged in extensive discussions with Perring regarding coming forward and identifying himself.

He mentioned over the course of discussions with Moneyweb on Wednesday that he had received death threats and the physical wellbeing of his family would be at risk should we reveal his identity.