A South African businessman accused of orchestrating a 15bn rand ($1.93bn) fraud has admitted to forging documents to deceive Qatar’s Barwa Real Estate, a source close to the matter said yesterday. The source, who asked not to be named, said Barry Tannenbaum had made the admission in a signed affidavit used by Barwa in a UK court application to freeze the assets of Dean Rees, a South African lawyer who the source said was linked to Tannenbaum. The source was confirming an article in South Africa’s Financial Mail weekly, which printed part of the affidavit yesterday and said Tannenbaum had signed it. “It is a legitimate document that has been signed by Barry,” the source said when asked about the affidavit. “It was part of the application in the London High Court.” Tannenbaum did not reply directly to emailed questions about whether he admitted to forging documents. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=July2009&file=Local_News20090703725.xml

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