Barry Izzie Tannebaum Accused Of $1.5 Billion Fraud

B. Izzie Tannenbaum, a South African businessman living in Sydney,  has denied that his pharmaceutical importing business is an elaborate Ponzi scheme where early investors are paid with the money other investors put in later. But South Africa's regulatory authorities are investigating what he's done with up to $1.5-billion invested by primarily Australians and South Africans.

Mr Tannenbaum is accused of offering 200 per cent annual returns to investors in his pharmaceutical ingredient importation businesses, Frankel International and Frankel Chemical Corp, and forging orders from big drug companies to back his claims.

The allegations have rocked the South African gentile establishment. Mr Tannenbaum is the grandson of  Harold Tannenbaum, the founder of the pharmaceutical giant Adcock-Ingram. An estimated 400 investors so far thought to be caught in the scheme are drawn from the ranks of the business elite in South Africa, Germany, the United States and Australia. 9