Dr Anushka Bogdanov, sanctioned by the JSE last year after it found a claimed PhD to be false, is fighting back against a Financial Services Tribunal (FST) ruling that upheld the bourse’s findings.
The FST dismissed Bogdanov’s application for reconsideration of the JSE’s 10-year ban on being a director and a R500 000 fine, stating she had misrepresented her CV and forged a letter confirming the award of a PhD, which was “evidence of her fraudulent conduct”.
In a Stock Exchange News Service note last year, the JSE said Bogdanov failed to prove the existence of a claimed PhD in International Financial Management and Mathematics from the London Business School (LBS).
Following the FST’s decision against her being handed down, Bogdanov – founder and executive chairman of Risk Insights – argued that the ruling “does not address issues raised in my application and various facts presented in the hearings and submissions to JSE and FST”.
Bogdanov, whose e-mail signature identifies her as Dr, says the ruling “also contains various inaccuracies including but not limited to personal and professional details” such as her marital status, academic designation as a doctor, and role as a board member of JSE fully-owned subsidiary Nautilus “despite these being matters of record”.
Bogdanov says in a LinkedIn post that the factual errors in the FST’s ruling raise questions about the tribunal’s assessment of the evidence. “The decision will be challenged.”
Deliberately intentional
In the ruling, judge Louis Harms, chairman of the FST and previously deputy president of the Supreme Court of Appeal, said he found Bogdanov to have conducted herself in a way that was “deliberate, fraudulent and intentional”.
The ruling adds that “when confronted with an inescapable set of facts, the applicant [Bogdanov] admitted in October 2024 that the certificate was a forgery”.
Harms adds: “It is clear to the tribunal that these forgeries were either committed by the applicant herself or with her knowledge and consent. To state otherwise would be contrary to the clear and irrefutable evidence on record.”
The ruling states: “It is common knowledge that, through various social media, the applicant has continued since 2008 to refer to herself as doctor. This was not truthful because when she left the room where she allegedly defended her thesis, she knew or ought to have known that a PhD had never been conferred on her.”
The FST’s decision notes Bogdanov was appointed by EOH on 20 June 2019 to chair its social and ethics, risk and governance, and remuneration committees, becoming lead independent director and deputy chairperson of the EOH board the following February.
Harms says, during the appointment process, she submitted a CV to EOH stating she held a PhD in International Financial Management and Mathematics from LBS. This, he writes, was followed by a forged certificate.
EOH, now iOCO, commissioned an investigation, conducted by Integrated Risk Management Solutions, which found four problems with the certificate: the logo differed from LBS’s official logo, it contained obvious spelling errors, LBS had no vice-chancellor position, and LBS did not offer a doctorate in International Financial Services, Harms writes.
Bogdanov resigned from all EOH positions on 28 July 2020, with the JSE then launching a three-year investigation “during which the applicant [Bogdanov] had the opportunity to admit that the certificate was a forgery and that she had misrepresented in her director’s declaration that she had truly been conferred with the PhD,” the ruling notes.
In all faith
The FST ruling notes that Bogdanov genuinely believed she had obtained a PhD in International Financial Management and Mathematics, denied any deliberate misrepresentation, and said the qualification had been included on her curriculum vitae by her secretary without her knowledge or consent.
The FST found these explanations implausible, noting that she had produced no supporting documentation – no registration records, no supervisor details, no thesis – at any point during the three-year investigation.
You can read Bogdanov’s LinkedIn post in full here.
Bogdanov also argued that the JSE’s listing requirements had been applied inconsistently, that she had been treated disproportionately compared with others, had received no unlawful gain, and that her health condition had not been adequately considered. She was diagnosed with cancer several years ago.
The ruling indicates Bogdanov also denied breaching the listing requirements, disputed the contents of the SENS announcement, and argued that the curriculum vitae matter had already been resolved with EOH through a confidential settlement agreement.
Apartheid, justice, resilience
After making the point in her LinkedIn statement that she learnt from “the importance of courage, justice, resilience and perseverance” from an early age due to her experiences of the “realities of apartheid as a child,” Bogdanov says “it would not be appropriate to comment further on the substance of the decision”.
Bogdanov does, however, add that she remains committed to conducting all affairs professionally, transparently, and in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
“I will provide further updates when there be [sic] any material developments,” she says.
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