At an annual salary of over R600 000, at least three homes in South Africa and one in France, Allen Michael Jones was definitely doing well as a senior executive of Bond Exchange of South Africa (Besa). His CV reads equally healthily, but fails to mention that he is a sociopath who cannot resist an opportunity to defraud the state – and the poor.

In his retirement letter to Besa, dated June 2009, Jones reminded his employers: “I have been employed in the South African Debt Securities Markets for 40 years, a career that I loved, have been passionate about. My current position held is ‘Head: Listing’.”

His decision to take early retirement with hefty benefits came within a day of the Competition Commission’s approval of the merger of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and Besa. Besa became a wholly owned subsidiary of JSE.

Then 62, Jones’s opting to go on retirement raised no eyebrows and his then-CEO at Besa, Garth Breubel, must not have seen anything odd about the decision. What he didn’t disclose however is that, as JSE and Besa were negotiating the merger and acquisition, he was having his own negotiations on the side with a potential employer.

Allen Jones off-duty from his bumming activities

Jones confirmed to Noseweek that he entered into another contract nearly a year before he informed Breubel of his intention to take early retirement.

Soon after receiving his early retirement package from Besa/JSE and assuming his new position, Jones applied to the Department of Labour’s Unemployment Insurance Fund under UIF No. 206279/5 for unemployment benefits. His application was approved. (He withheld the fact that he had received full retirement benefits from Besa, as well as the status of his new employment.) To collect his monthly benefits from the UIF, Jones would dress as a hobo who looked as though he needed the little the state could offer him to feed himself.

What could have motivated Jones – a man with a seemingly splendid past in financial matters – to decide to defraud the Department of Labour?

He maintained to his friends and colleagues at his new place of employment that he only took money from the state and not the poor. His former colleagues who talked to Noseweek told us that for him, it was a matter of playing the system.

According to UIF’s Susan Schrader, it was Jones’ new employers who alerted the department to his fraudulent ways. When UIF confronted him with the facts, he immediately offered to refund the entire R39 051.64 he had collected from UIF. In return for his offer to refund the entire lot, the department decided not to prosecute him for fraud and theft.

When Noseweek tracked him down at his Franschhoek farm, Jones confirmed having received the money from UIF and maintained that he was entitled to every penny he collected. 

“I only decided to give it back because I didn’t have time to litigate with the department over what was due to me. I did nothing wrong.”

Would he not agree that there are many who are more deserving of what he collected? He, a person with multiple homes, an early retirement package and another job?

“The law doesn’t say that I couldn’t claim my rights.”

What part of the lies were your right? Noseweek asked. And why did you have to dress in tattered clothes whenever you went to collect your monthly benefits?

“Please don’t publish anything about this yet, I’ll pay you to come see me in Johannesburg so that we can discuss this further,” he suggested in reply.

Now there’s a thought – and maybe a clue as to how he’s managed to pull it off for so long.

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