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<\/p>\n\u2022 N$250 million to N$350 million likely lost \u2022 \u201cNow we have nothing left\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At least N$250 million belonging to Namibian pensioners and families has been lost after a Windhoek financial advisory firm risked their savings on foreign investments.<\/p>\n
After losing money overseas, Wealth Management Solutions (WMS) owner Hanjo Schlabitz allegedly paid out clients from other people\u2019s accounts to hide the losses and keep his firm afloat.<\/p>\n
Investors say they were not kept informed of WMS\u2019 deepening financial woes and kept paying into a failing firm.<\/p>\n
A total of 87 people and two organisations have come forward to recover what they can, but the liquidator estimates the total losses are likely to reach N$350 million.<\/p>\n
Wealth Management Solutions has for years advertised itself as a go-to financial advisory that expands people\u2019s wealth.<\/p>\n
Many of its clients were elderly people who had trusted the firm for years. Some had started investing 20 years ago with Schlabitz\u2019s father, who founded the firm and built its name in the tight-knit German-Namibian community.<\/p>\n
Others include non-profit organisations that are now at risk of retrenching their employees.<\/p>\n
Schlabitz invested savings and pensions on their behalf. Part of it went into local investment companies.<\/p>\n
The rest was invested abroad and placed on digital trading platforms called Pepperstone and Mt Cook that bet on the rise and fall of currencies and commodity prices.<\/p>\n
Schlabitz promised clients they would earn around 7% a year in the money market fund and up to 20% on their investment in foreign exchange, according to investors The Namibian has spoken to.<\/p>\n
But the money invested overseas disappeared this year after one of the trading platforms \u2013 Mt Cook \u2013 collapsed.<\/p>\n
Schlabitz could not be reached for comment via phone, text message or email.<\/p>\n
The Namibian recently visited his offices, which were closed.<\/p>\n
LIQUIDATOR CONFIRMS<\/p>\n
Schlabitz\u2019s Wealth Management Solutions applied for voluntary liquidation on 21 April, a month after it lost a large sum of money in foreign exchange trading.<\/p>\n
Wiam Schickerling was subsequently appointed as the liquidator to shut down the company and try to recover creditors\u2019 funds.<\/p>\n
Schickerling believes the final amount owed to creditors is likely to total about N$350 million. He urges outstanding creditors to submit their claims with his office.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoughly 70% of creditors have filed claims. I think the total [of claims] is going to go to N$300 or N$350 million,\u201d Schicklerling has told The Namibian.<\/p>\n
Crucial to the claims of improper use of investors\u2019 funds are statements by the liquidator and the minutes and transcripts of a creditors\u2019 meeting held on 3 June.<\/p>\n
Schickerling says Schlabitz confirmed directly that he withdrew funds from money market clients to pay off other clients.<\/p>\n
The money market account in question is held by IJG Securities. <\/p>\n
The amount in the IJG account should be N$47.7 million, according to the statements investors received. <\/p>\n
The amount in the account after transfers by Schlabitz is N$17.3 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had already suffered losses from 2023. After 2023, some clients requested the repayment of their investments. <\/p>\n
He then withdrew money from the money market,\u201d the liquidator says.<\/p>\n
Schlabitz paid out at least two clients with the money, hoping to make up his losses at a later date.
Although this began in 2023, Schlabitz continued to accept new clients through 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of these clients are old people who started investing with his father. <\/p>\n
Some 90% of them lost their entire pensions. <\/p>\n
One couple testified he [Schlabitz] requested them to move all of their pension to Mt Cook in February. <\/p>\n
They lost everything,\u201d Schickerling says.<\/p>\n
Currently, a total of 118 claims have been lodged against WMS, most of them people who have invested their life savings and pensions with Schlabitz.<\/p>\n
Just N$18 million remains in WMS, including the money market and moveable goods, according to the liquidator\u2019s preliminary investigations.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe lost most of his money last September. <\/p>\n
I think he felt bad that he lost most of his clients\u2019 money, so he issued fake statements,\u201d Schickerling says.<\/p>\n
PENSION PLANS RUINED<\/p>\n
The Namibian spoke to 17 of the alleged victims over the past month.<\/p>\n
One of them is a woman (63) who deposited nearly N$400 000 with Schlabitz and planned to use the funds to retire in two and a half years. She declined to be named.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like someone punched me in the gut. I feel humiliated because Schlabitz has been doing business with my family for years. He knows we trusted him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She deposited her savings into the money market account after checking what the returns were. They were good, but in line with other investments: nothing raised red flags.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe statements were saying my money was growing. According to deposits and interests, the amount seemed to be correct,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her daughter had been doing business with Schlabitz for years and recommended him to her mother when her pension matured.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told her it\u2019s zero risk. Usually it was very secure. But he [said in the meeting that he] forged some of the statements and it\u2019s really bad for us,\u201d her daughter said.<\/p>\n
She specifically recommended a low-risk investment because she did not want her mother to gamble with her pension savings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very disappointed because [Schlabitz] took IJG money to pay out higher risk clients who lost their money,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In March, The Namibian reported that WMS placed funds with IJG Securities, a Namibian stockbroker, which says the funds it has in WMS\u2019 name are safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he had not used other clients\u2019 funds from his IJG pool account, all would have been fine. Mt Cook [one of the products offered to clients] collapsed, we lost money and finished. It\u2019s such a mess because he dabbled with money he was not allowed to touch and he admitted to that during the first meeting,\u201d another of the clients said.<\/p>\n
Another pensioner (71) who had over N$400 000 in savings in Schlabitz\u2019s company said: \u201cA week earlier [before receiving the news] I had called [WMS] to ask for N$30 000 to be put on my account. That\u2019s what I have [of my pension] now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no idea what I\u2019m going to do. Maybe my son can help me.\u201d<\/p>\n
N$16 MILLION GONE<\/p>\n
A client who invested over N$16 million in WMS told The Namibian this week she feels misled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said never, ever [put my money into] anything high-risk. He always said it was safe,\u201d the client said.<\/p>\n
She became concerned about keeping investments overseas due to the war in the Middle East, but Schlabitz just told her he could not log into the trading system.<\/p>\n
In March, she gave Schlabitz funds to invest in the Namibian money market account. In April, she requested some of the money to be paid out to her for an expense, only to be ignored by WMS.<\/p>\n
She reached out to IJG and Pepperstone to find out about the money she believed was invested in her name, only for both to tell her they had no record of her as a client.<\/p>\n
Then she received the news about the liquidation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe misled me until the last minute. I gave all my investments, all my savings to him. Now we have nothing left,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew all my dreams. And it was cut, just like that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said she put her savings and that of her children into investments as a safeguard for their future. She invested in several different products and spoke clearly to Schlabitz about her needs and her risk appetite, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unbearable what he did,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bubble burst for us,\u201d her partner said. \u201cYou realise you\u2019ve got your wallet and what\u2019s in it and nothing else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another client said he was careful to request that Schlabitz put his N$10 million in investments into different investment products. He split his savings into IJG, Pepperstone, and Mt Cook.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him I want three investments. If one thing is gone, then I still have the other two,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Although Mt Cook folded, Schlabitz should have had money left. Instead, the money from the money market account has disappeared, allegedly to pay out other Mt Cook investors.<\/p>\n
IJG has in the past distanced itself from Schlabitz\u2019s WMS.<\/p>\n
16 YEARS\u2019 SAVINGS GONE<\/p>\n
A younger client who declined to be named said she began investing with WMS because her family had trusted the company for years and invested over N$5 million through Schlabitz.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe products that were sold to my family directly seemed like fail-safe options. For me personally, I was just with the money market so I didn\u2019t think my money would have gone somewhere [when I found out about Mt Cook],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She was shocked to learn at the creditors meeting that her money had been used to pay out other clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the people were well above retirement age, and it\u2019s not fair to them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a professional financial adviser he should have kept the accounts separate. I feel it\u2019s completely irresponsible to use other people\u2019s investments to cover up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said her father had been asked to move more money into Pepperstone earlier this year by Schlabitz, and felt lucky that her father had refused.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not optimistic I will get even half of my money back. My family has similar sentiments,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Another client lost the N$150 000 in savings he had in the name of his wife and child.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s 16 years of savings. I don\u2019t have any other investments. I\u2019ll have to work at least 10 years to [save that money again],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added that he, however, holds no grudge against Schlabitz.<\/p>\n
People invested in high-risk forex trading would have accepted the risk before they invested and should have been told honestly the money was gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy opinion is that the company went a bit south on overseas investment. Unfortunately, Schlabitz overreacted and gave some of our local investors\u2019 money to [those who lost it overseas],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Even though he has lost all his savings, he said he still has his business, unlike others.<\/p>\n
One client said he believes he was given adequate information by Schlabitz about the potential risks involved.<\/p>\n
He is only disappointed that Schlabitz was not honest about the state of his investment and began making up statements to cover himself.<\/p>\n
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?<\/p>\n
The collapse of the firm began in March this year, when a fall in gold prices wiped out all the money that Schlabitz had invested in a trading platform called Mt Cook.<\/p>\n
Schlabitz offered his clients access to two international trading platforms: Pepperstone and Mt Cook.<\/p>\n
These are trading platforms where people buy and sell currencies or commodities, essentially betting on whether prices would go up or down.<\/p>\n
Schlabitz was the trader, but the accounts are in the name of clients and they put money directly onto the trading platforms.<\/p>\n
Pepperstone and Mt Cook provided financial statements about individual trading accounts. Schlabitz, with a power of attorney, received those statements and shortened them to be easier to understand.<\/p>\n
On 23 March, an abnormally large number of traders on Mt Cook were invested in the price of gold, betting that the price would go up. But the price fell and Mt Cook, which had so many traders borrowing money to bet on the price of gold, was unable to pay its debt and folded.<\/p>\n
The WMS clients invested in Mt Cook lost all their money and WMS was forced to go into liquidation.<\/p>\n
Prior to this, there were issues with the other forex trading platform, Pepperstone, as well. Since 2023, it has similarly experienced highly unpredictable changes in commodity prices that likely led WMS clients to lose money.<\/p>\n
According to creditors\u2019 lawyers, Schlabitz did not inform his clients of any losses and continued to provide the shortened statements showing they still had funds.<\/p>\n
According to transcripts of the creditors meeting, Schlabitz described the statements as \u201cmisstated\u201d.<\/p>\n
POISONED CHALICE<\/p>\n
Financial experts who spoke to The Namibian explained that financial advisers have a responsibility to explain the riskiness of overseas investments to their clients.<\/p>\n
Forex trading has genuine appeal for Namibians with savings. The country\u2019s own financial market is tiny, whereas forex is the largest financial market in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn paper, it sounds like an attractive way to access global markets from a small economy like ours,\u201d economist Almandro Jansen says.<\/p>\n
With algorithmic trading platforms like Mt Cook, it is even possible to make money without understanding forex trading.<\/p>\n
But people who are encouraged by financial advisers to look at forex should understand how the algorithm trades, what the strategy is, and have seen real audited results.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should know whether their money is sitting in a segregated account that belongs to them, or whether it\u2019s pooled somewhere the manager can dip into,\u201d Jansen says.<\/p>\n
Some of Schlabitz\u2019s clients believe they had individual accounts with Pepperstone and Mt Cook, while others believe it is a segregated account.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a client signed up without clear answers to those questions, they were either not properly informed, or actively misled. Either way, that\u2019s a problem that sits with the adviser,\u201d Jansen says, adding that regulation is also \u201cmessy\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa) is responsible for licensing and supervising financial advisers in Namibia.<\/p>\n
Namfisa, however, has limited control over the overseas platforms Namibians invest in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen fraud happens at the adviser level, the client is left chasing someone in a gap between jurisdictions. The offshore platform says talk to your local adviser. Namfisa says the platform is foreign. And the client is the one with an empty account,\u201d Jansen says.<\/p>\n
Financial analyst Eric van Zyl says financial advisers and anyone managing wealth have a responsibility to check how much risk their clients are willing to take on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s a very wealthy individual and they have a high risk appetite and the wealth manager allocates 5% of their portfolio into high-risk products, it might be right for some people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But objectively, people who are close to retirement should not be encouraged to put funds into something as high-risk as currency trading.<\/p>\n
\u201cObjectively, somebody who is nearing retirement needs lower risk investments if they are not wealthy. Someone who is 60 to 70 doesn\u2019t have time to make up losses,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He says his experience in similarly volatile environments as forex leads him to view it as highly risky. Even banks with dedicated teams lose money in these markets.<\/p>\n
Namfisa did not respond to questions about their regulatory practices or whether they were following WMS\u2019 activities by the time of going to print.<\/p>\n
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CLOSED \u2026 Wealth Management Solutions\u2019 website has been shut down.<\/p>\n
Key takeaways<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like someone punched me in the gut\u201d \u2013 A pensioner (63) who trusted Schlabitz with nearly N$400 000 of her retirement savings.<\/p>\n
The liquidator estimates total losses will reach around N$350 million, with just N$17 million left against 118 claims.<\/p>\n
Schlabitz admits that he used \u2018safe\u2019 clients\u2019 savings to pay for foreign investments.<\/p>\n
A client who invested over N$16 million in WMS says she feels misled.<\/p>\n
WHO IS HANJO SCHLABITZ?<\/p>\n
Schlabitz has worked at Wealth Management Solutions since 2008.<\/p>\n
He took over the firm from his father, Wolfgang Schlabitz, who in 2016 died in a freak accident on his farm.<\/p>\n
The younger Schlabitz is in his late 40s and is described by his clients as confident and competent.<\/p>\n
He is a chartered accountant, certified financial planner, and registered as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Namibia.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/haino-1024x683.jpg\")
ADVICE \u2026 Schlabitz took over the firm from his father and introduced overseas forex trading as an investment product. Photo: JoyHouse Children\u2019s Village<\/p>\n
Schlabitz was the chairperson of Hope for Life Foundation, a non-profit organisation overseeing projects such as JoyHouse Children\u2019s Village.<\/p>\n
He was removed from this position once concerns about his firm were made public, but his wife remains on the board.<\/p>\n
Schlabitz was also the vice president for finance on the Namibian Gymnastics Federation\u2019s executive committee and a member of the Deutsche H\u00f6here Privatschule board.<\/p>\n
He no longer holds these positions.<\/p>\n
Q&A with Simonis Storm economist Almandro Jansen on forex<\/p>\n
What is forex?<\/p>\n
Forex is just currency trading.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re essentially betting that one currency will strengthen against another.<\/p>\n
So if you think the US dollar is going to rise against the euro, you buy dollars and sell euros, and if you\u2019re right, you make money on the difference.<\/p>\n
What is a \u2018high-risk\u2019 investment in this case?<\/p>\n
Think about a money market account at Bank Windhoek.<\/p>\n
You put money in, it earns interest, it\u2019s in Namibia dollars, the Bank of Namibia is watching over the institution, and barring something truly catastrophic, you\u2019re getting your money back.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s low risk.<\/p>\n
Not exciting, but safe.<\/p>\n
Forex is a completely different animal.<\/p>\n
Most platforms let you trade on leverage, meaning you can control a position worth 10 or 20 times what you actually deposited.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s great when markets move in your favour and brutal when they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
A small adverse move can wipe out your entire account before you\u2019ve even had time to react.<\/p>\n
Who regulates this?<\/p>\n
At the Namibian end, Namfisa is responsible for licensing and supervising anyone giving investment advice or managing client funds locally.<\/p>\n
The Financial Intelligence Centre also plays a role around suspicious financial flows.<\/p>\n
On the platform side, Pepperstone is actually a fairly well-regulated broker; it holds licences in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Europe. Mt Cook is a different story and has attracted scrutiny.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the structural problem: The foreign regulator cares about the platform operating properly, not about what a Namibian adviser told a Namibian client before the money ever arrived on the platform.<\/p>\n
And Namfisa has authority over the local adviser, but limited reach once the money has crossed a border.<\/p>\n
*This article was produced by The Namibian\u2019s Investigative Unit. If you know of wrongdoing that should be exposed, securely write to us at: investigations@namibian.com.na<\/p>\n
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