P.O. Box 16778 E-mail:
[email protected] Lyttelton 0140 Centurion South Africa
Mario Koppers 21 December 2008 The Executive Chairman Mr Patrick Stapleton Edwafin P.O. Box 2180 Hillcrest 3650 KZN Email:
[email protected] [email protected] Fax: 0868797657
Mobile: +27 (0)72 193 1389 Phone: +27 (0)12 667-6192 Fax: 086 662 1251 (SA only) Fax: +02064263338 (International) SKYPE: Mario.koppers
DMus (UP), MMus (UNISA), LTCL(g), LTCL(t), LMusTCL Dip. Datametrics (UNISA), VB (Brainbench)
Dear Mr Stapleton, Debenture Certificates C64 and D37 I thank you for responding to my recent email and sms messages. To be quite honest I had not expected to hear from you until after 12 January. Nevertheless, it was a relief to realize that you still responded even if your offices were closed for the season. First of all I refer to your comment about people saying nothing about the current financial crisis and the losses on the stock market. For the last few months, that is the topic on most peoples’ lips, and that is all one hears about on the news. Nevertheless, I fail to see how that issue has any relationship to my investment with Edwifin – the two are totally separate matters. Then I am also delighted that your database is now in working order and hope that it will stay like that for the future. Of course, even if it had worked by the end of November, it would have been useless, as there was no money to transfer electronically. Naturally I was rather perturbed by your blatant, and if I may say, arrogant, promise of legal abuse by your company should I want to pursue my legal rights. You seem to make it clear that you are all-powerful and that your investors have no legal rights. Although I am not intimidated by your attitude, my first impulse was to submit all the documents related to this matter to the various authorities and news agents, as this big-brother-bully approach is very distasteful. After all, it is not me, the investor, who has defaulted on the commitment Edwafin made, but your company. However, I realize that you must be under considerable pressure at this time and have decided to put that thought on hold as it would potentially not only damage my own interests but also that of the other investors in Edwafin. Reading past the intimidation are also realize that you are a highly intelligent and honourable person as most men are not capable of building a company such as Edwafin from the ground up. So I contemplated the matter somewhat and decided that a more conciliatory tone would be in the best interest of us all. As you rightly state yourself: it is better to work together than against each other. The arrival of the registered letter is also awaited impatiently. One thing that I am still trying to figure out is why we received a friendly sms from Edwafin on 15 December, the day that we had to deposit our cheques - and that you would obviously have known that they would bounce - informing us that the offices were closed until 12 January 2009. Perhaps an informative and pre-emptive letter would have been a bit friendlier way of handling the situation. A further suggestion is that you make the financial statements more readily available to the investors so that they can see for themselves what the state of affairs is. As I speak www.edwafin.co.za is down and on your alternative .com site there is no mention of financial statements or any other items that may fall under the information act. Naturally your offices are now closed and any such information is inaccessible until next year. If I may, another suggestion: establish a closed user group on the internet, to which investors belong. Such users can then login and can perhaps be given access to important information that affects them. Naturally, such a system would need to be devoid of empty spin doctoring and all pertaining information would need to be made available. But that is now past and you have made it clear that there is currently no money (but you have enough to pay your team of high powered attorneys to legally oppress me into submission! – sorry, just a bit of wry humour), to pay your investors. Also, you do not envisage that the interest amounts will be available before the end of January or February 2009. That, of course, is not good news (seen from the investors point of view), as it means that Edwafin has then defaulted on its undertaking two months in a row. Add to that the bad publicity the whole matter may generate there is already one other investor who has voiced his opinion on the internet), and the future seems rather hazy.
The following is a quote from your first email to me (dated 10/12/2008)
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As I have pointed out to you we are not in breach of our
prospectus nor have we ever been, even now in paying within the 15 days from month end as is clearly stated in the prospectus. (Only then are we in breach) So we are not in breach and I pointed out it is a temporary problem. That is just about resolved. In my books Edwafin has now defaulted (and has promised to do so again at the end of December) on its conditions as stated in its prospectus, and in my sms to you (dated 19/12/2008) I requested the return of my investment amounts. From your recent email I can only conclude that you have no intention of returning my money in terms of the prospectus, and that if I should make any waves in this respect, you will be very cross with me and put your legal pit bulls onto me. (Sorry, but I just became upset again). Am I correct? Again, (this time in a friendly, non-threatening tone) please be decent, honest, respectable and as sincere as your brochures and information sheets make you seem to be, and return my investments to me within the next seven days. To close, you need to know, that as an investor and as things stand now, it appears that I have very little to lose by standing up for myself. Yours sincerely Dr Mario Koppers This letter by: Email Fax