Alleged killer paediatric surgeon denies conducting unnecessary surgeries to recover money from tanked investment

JOHANNESBURG - Murder-accused paediatric surgeon Peter Beale has rubbished the suggestion that he undertook unnecessary surgeries to claw back money he lost in a tanked investment.

Beale is currently on the stand at the High Court in Joburg, where his trial is underway. He is accused of the murder of three children who died after surgeries he performed, which the state alleges they in fact did not need.

He was one of the victims of the infamous Tannenbaum ponzi scheme, which left investors around the country out of pocket when it collapsed in 2009.

And the state alleges that he performed the surgeries to recoup his lost funds. 
He denies the allegstions.

Beale admits that he lost some R1.5 million in the Tannenbaum scheme and that it left him disappointed, angry and even depressed for a time.

But he said that he and his then wife had an expansive joint estate at the time as well as that he was earning between four and five million rand a year and that it did not affect his financial standing.

He vehemently denies that he undertook surgeries that weren’t necessary to recover the money lost, adding that he would never do this. 
The case continues.