Following a barrage of attacks on various social media platforms concerning the alleged swindling of money paid by would-be travelers to ‘Hello Darlings,’ herewith is their response, given to the Laudium Sun… CEO, Tasneem Moosa, speaks out…
“My name is Tasneem Moosa (also known as Tazz Moosa), the CEO of the Human Marketing Academy which operates Hello Darlings, the travel offering.
During the past few days, there have been multiple messages circulating and a group formed which allude that I have taken millions in people’s money and gone into hiding. I would like to set the record straight.
At the onset let me state that I am not in possession of any monies that were paid over to us for the purposes of travel or from loans given to us for refunds. All the monies earned by the company were either paid out in refunds or travel bookings. Here is the exact series of events. This information can be verified by the relevant authorities from lists and bank statements that are being released to them.
My company, The Human Marketing Academy was registered in 2016. The ‘Hello Darlings’ offering was born in 2018. The company was dormant until that time as I was still an employee and working at a corporate. During January 2018, I decided to try and market a trip to Istanbul for ladies who needed a retreat. The marketing was somewhat successful, and we took 29 ladies on what was a very good trip but it ran at a loss of about R40 000, because my pricing was too low. I thereafter borrowed funds, paid the losses back and launched another trip for December 2018 I only had 5 guests on this trip and it broke even.
Subsequently, I decided to launch buy1 get 1 specials in order to grow the business and provide affordable travel to the marketplace, for those who could only realise their travel dreams this way since the costs were so prohibitive.
All trips since 2019, ran at massive losses which I either fulfilled myself or borrowed from investors to fulfil. This meant that any monies coming in for future travels were paid to service providers for current travels and to pay investors their earnings on the amounts they had loaned me. We also allowed people to pay off their trips, with whatever amounts they could afford monthly. All trips from that period right up until November 2021 were fulfilled and paid up in this manner. It becomes obvious however, that we were always then in deficit unless we advertised new trips to pay for the current trips.
When the travel bans kicked in during 2020, we had multiple trips that were booked and paid for and when the airlines and hotels refunded us, we paid the bulk of refunds out. Again, due to being at a loss, it was not sufficient to pay the Europe reloaded refunds, so we offered to complete these trips during this year.
The monies paid to us for trips in December were used both to book tickets and also to fulfil resort and trip payments for September, October and November trips. When the travel bans hit in December, there was no money to refund. The only money we could rely on was the refunds for the air tickets we had already booked. We requested refunds from the airlines and as the refunds came in, they were paid out to people who were due refunds.
The list of refunds which has been released, amounts to a total of R26million, and not hundreds of millions as has been reported. Of this figure, about R7-10 million has been paid back. Again this will be verified by the various authorities involved, by using our bank statements of the only accounts we have.
There is a further R10 million amount for future travel bookers, which was used to pay previous travel and to facilitate refunds during the past 2 months.
Added to this is approximately R8 million in investor money over the past 2 years.
I have tried to fulfil refunds for months in whatever manner I could. I resorted to begging former investors to assist me. I even eventually went to existing guests to assist me to fulfil these refunds and future travel costs.
To address some of the allegations and actions being taken currently:
The Human Marketing Academy and myself will officially go into liquidation and sequestration processes. Any assets currently frozen will be ceded to this process to aid in refunding monies where possible. I do not have millions with me or in any accounts. I have not disappeared, or run away with peoples money. My life and that of my children have been threatened and we therefore went to a place of safety, as any responsible parent would. These threats will be circulated with the details of the threateners to the relevant authorities to aid a protection order application. The threat to my children is further exacerbated, now that pictures of the said minors are circulating.
The numbers being prejudicially reported in the media and on the group are wholly inaccurate with what I can only imagine, are non-bookers adding their random figures. Any media that have reported these numbers prejudicially without verification will be addressed during formal proceedings.
The pictures of my minor children being circulated are being addressed through a separate legal process.
Many influencers, including Siddiqa and Basheera, who have come out condemning me, have benefited financially from my trips that were undertaken during the existence of Hello Darlings. While we may not have paid them, they received numerous secondary paid posts and financial gain from their travels. They were paid in FREE trips and did not have to fulfil any trip costs in return for their advertisements. Monetary payouts to other influencers were in the form of bonuses upon them undertaking administrative work during the 4 months from August to December last year. Some influencers also received dividends if they invested with us. Now, many of the influencers have decided to make mockery posts and ads, but while the going was good they benefited. Furthermore, the influencers, after being made aware of the financial circumstances of the company strong- armed me into refunding their families first.They made sure their friends got paid first. Many of them also enjoyed our trips with their extended families. Those same influencers who are currently on social media condemning me, are also sending pictures of my minor children out into the world. Given the current world climate surrounding children and child related crimes, this is clearly a direct threat against my children.
My ex husband, while a director on the company from the time we were married, has no involvement in these proceedings and is an innocent party who is being persecuted. He is not partially sighted, he is fully blind. People are making death threats to all of us!
My mother and ex in- laws had no involvement or were not aware of anything that has transpired in relation to this business.
While it is true that I was in a relationship for a few months last year, the individual and I have not been in a relationship for weeks and ties have broken. There is no involvement from his side in these events.
For those who see fit to create wanted posters with false information and to contact foreign authorities with inaccurate information, we will provide all authorities with full information.
My Dubai entity had no bearing in these matters and I refunded in full, the only people who were booked for December from Dubai, already in January. The South African reporter inaccurately providing this information, needs to verify items published in both the group and in his articles as we have proof of what we have declared in this statement and we will definitely be addressing these false allegations. Refund lists drawn from the Hello Darlings refund mailbox as well as bank statements for the only 2 accounts we have, are being released through our representation to the relevant authorities.
Where I reached account limits or needed to do instant payments, I requested friends to pay instantly through their accounts, which they assisted me with. Thus they should not be prejudiced as they were only assisting me.
There were also a few people who assisted us to pay resorts amounts when we reached our card limits and again, they did not do this maliciously and should not be prejudiced for their assistance.
The booking agents who completed flights and accommodation bookings for us, received amounts as presented to us only to fulfil these bookings and were not paid by us for their services.
While I acknowledge that I ran this business poorly and suffered tremendous trade losses, I HAVE NOT STOLEN anybody’s money. I am not on the run with millions, let alone thousands. My bank statements can verify this and will do so.
I understand that these trade losses were not the fault of the trusting public who paid us their hard earned and saved monies. I understand that it was wrong to use people’s monies to fulfil trips and refunds. I am truly and deeply sorry from the bottom of my heart and never intended for anybody to lose their money. It may have been stupid business practice to run it in this manner, but the intention was never to collect anybody’s money and to leave or swindle anybody as is being speculated and reported. I do not have your money. I lost it in poor business dealings and for this I am so sorry. There is no fraud here, only poor business sense, which is a lesson I will pay for, for the rest of my life.
My children are innocent in this. I was trying to protect them. Circulating their pictures achieves only to further ruin their lives. I understand that the public and my bookers and investors are very angry and disappointed in me. It was never my intent for it to get to this point and I genuinely believed that I could salvage the situation. My bank statements can prove and I am sure the recipients too, that I paid out whatever came in as it came in within minutes, to try and do the right thing, to try and fulfil my obligations. There was no malicious intent or plan from the onset as is being speculated. I sold packages at a loss to try and keep it going so that people could get their refunds and holidays. I genuinely got into trouble trying to fulfil this. I understand that none of this justifies the loss of your monies, and I also understand that these monies were hard earned. I started this business for you and to provide you with dream holidays and I failed you. Nothing will justify this. I have no option but to declare bankruptcy and insolvency. The lawyers have advised me that they will ask all parties who have been refunded to pay back the money and a fair equitable distribution will be made amongst all parties, I was forced to repay in excess of R50million in the last few months to well-known people. There is NO money left. Those who have offered agencies money to find me, will find that there is no money that you have promised these agencies, as I paid it all out to refunds and accommodation and flight costs that were for trips. All the rumours about me having millions are untrue and the liquidators will get to the bottom of it all soon. Once again, I apologise for this heartbreaking situation and the pain I have caused to all.”
