Wilbur Smith 'leads double life'

2002-02-08 09:08

Cape Town - International best-selling author Wilbur Smith has led a double life for years under the name of Steven Bisset Lawrence in what his stepson believes is an attempt to hide his money from his former wives and children, according to papers before the Cape High Court.

These claims by the stepson, American medical specialist Dieter Kurt Thomas Schmidt, follow an application launched by Smith and Cape Town attorney Oscar Roupe in their capacity as trustees for the Sunbird Trust, founded by Smith in 1986.

They wanted to have a decision by the trust set aside in the Cape High Court.

The decision would have enabled Schmidt's former home in Constantia, owned by the trust, to be sold, with the proceeds going to Schmidt to buy a house in the United States.

Rescinding the decision, as Smith wanted, would deny Schmidt this money.

Schmidt has now brought a counter application asking the court to remove both Roupe and Smith as trustees, and to stop any distribution of capital or income to any beneficiary of the Sunbird Trust before the trust is terminated.

In his affidavit filed with the counter application, Schmidt said Smith had been married three times before he married his present wife.

He married Danielle, his third wife and Schmidt's mother, in 1971. She died in December 1999.

Schmidt said: "To the best of my knowledge, their relationship was close until about 1992. Indeed, Smith has often credited my mother as having been a source of enormous inspiration for him in his life and in his novels.

"Until very recently Smith and I were very close. He regarded me as his son and I regarded him as my father. My mother was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in December 1992.

"From then on, both Smith and my mother were under increasing personal strain and Smith would spend longer and longer periods away from her."

Five months after Danielle's death, Smith married his present wife, Mokhiniso Rakhimova, 38 years his junior.

"They did not tell my wife or me about their marriage at the time. From September 2000, major difficulties in my relationship with Smith began to appear.

"The details of the breakdown are very painful (no doubt for him too) and I do not traverse them in detail here.

"Suffice to say that from the time when Smith married Rakhimova I detected in him a coldness and a turning away from me and my family."

Schmidt said a couple of months before his mother's death, Smith had told him how to gain access to his (Smith's) personal computer files.

Changed birth date, place

A year later, when Schmidt realised that "Smith was attempting to deceive me", he had copies made of Smith's files and computer desktop.

Schmidt said that in 1994 his stepfather acquired an Irish and a Seychellois passport, to join the British and South African passports he already carried.

"In 1993, he acquired a Sri Lankan passport in the name of Steven Bisset Lawrence. In the application form Smith gave his place of birth as Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

"In fact, he was born in Zambia. He also gave his date of birth as July 1 1933, whereas he was born on January 9 1933."

Copies of his international driver's licence, a library card and business card all in the name of Lawrence have been attached to court documents.

Schmidt continued: "On August 10 1993, Smith wrote to a financial services company and requested that he be provided with an off-the-shelf company for which he chose the name Lamorna Resources SA.

"He instructed that power of attorney should be given to Steven Bisset Lawrence.

"Smith then purported to sell and assign to Lamorna Resources SA all of his royalties in relation to certain of the works which had then been produced by him.

"This agreement was, in effect, nothing other than an agreement between Smith and himself.

Signed as himself and alias

"In November 1997, Smith made inquiries regarding the use of another offshore entity (under another alias, W Sinclair) by an organisation known as Ocra Worldwide. His intentions appear from his letter, dated January 10 1998.

"On the application form, he indicated that the director of the company would be Steven Bisset Lawrence. A copy of Lawrence's (false) passport accompanied the form... The document was signed by both Lawrence and Smith."

On the form was the same address for both Lawrence and Sinclair, and Smith's own fax number.

"His intention was to move the assets, which, at that time, were held by Salamanca (Pty) Ltd on behalf of the Sunbird Trust to the new company which would place them out of the reach of his children born of his former wives and mom.

"The second intention was thus apparently to frustrate any interest that the children of his previous marriages had in the property.

"His second concern was the receiver of revenue. He wished to disabuse the South African receiver of revenue of the possible perception that the Bishopscourt property was his personal home.

"It did not appear to concern Smith that transferring the house to the new company's name at a nominal price was improper. Smith's intention seemed to have been to obtain a valuation of R700 000, irrespective of the true value of the house."

Schmidt said that by the April after his mother's death in December 1999, Smith and his new wife must have already been "friendly", as they married the following month. In fact, in February 2000 he had already agreed to marry her, he said.

Copied files and documents

"In April 2000, Smith approached me with the request that I formally renounce all benefits in the South African-registered Sunbird Trust, as well as the Sunbird Trust (Jersey).

"He motivated his request by telling me that neither trust had any assets and that they served no purpose any longer.

"I was entirely unfamiliar with the affairs of the two trusts. I agreed to the proposal."

However, after speaking to a lawyer, it became clear to Schmidt that Smith had lied to him.

"This is what led me to copy the files and documents," he said.

Smith, who is in London, has not supplied a substantive answer to these allegations.

- SAPA