This is an adapted version of the latest story by Ciaran Ryan on the Mohommed Karolia saga.
The owner of House of Clouds vaping and ‘420’ shop on the East Rand, Muhammed Karolia, has reportedly fled overseas and is being sought by police and an investor in connection with the disappearance of over R44,7 million. His former business partner, Mohammed Ebrahim, has now obtained a far-reaching court order freezing all Karolia’s bank accounts after laying fraud charges against him over a padel court investment that went sour.
Moneyweb reports that the Johannesburg High Court granted Ebrahim an order on 18 December 2025, prohibiting more than 60 respondents, including all major banks and dozens of licensed forex dealers, from executing any transactions from accounts controlled by Karolia and four of his associates.
This follows an earlier court order compelling the SA Reserve Bank (SARB), FNB and ABSA to freeze all accounts in Karolia’s name and provide bank statements in an attempt to track a multi-million investment that appears to have gone missing.
Cannabiz Africa understands that House of Clouds, which specialises in hookahs, vapes, tobacco and cannabis-related products, is unaffected by the issue and continues to operate as normal.
Moneyweb’s Ciaran Ryan, who has been following the case, reports that Ebrahim became concerned after the R44,7 million he entrusted to Karolia eight months ago became unaccountable.
Ebrahim now believes that Karolia had no intentions of developing padel courts, as he had promised, but instead splashed out on his lavish lifestyle which included many overseas trips.
“Instead, he appears to have been living large on his former business partner’s dime” writes Ryan.
The issue has had a ripple effect through the East Rand Muslim community through which an initial attempt was made to resolve the dispute. It’s unclear what process was followed but it appears Karolia reneged on the deal, prompting Ebrahim to take further action in which he opened a criminal fraud case and obtained a Johannesburg High Court order compelling the Reserve Bank (SARB), FNB and ABSA to freeze all accounts in in Karolia’s name and provide details of forex transactions.
Eight months of bank statements revealed that millions of rands flowed out of Karolia’s accounts to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, US, Thailand and Netherlands.
Ebrahim has now compelled more than 60 licensed forex dealers and banks to freeze all Karolia’s accounts, citing numerous other respondents, including Karolia’s mother and close business associates who are believed to have been recipients of some of the funds.
Colonel Naidoo of the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit confirmed to Moneyweb that the case is under investigation and believes Karolia travelled to the UAE after the court order compelling the SARB to freeze his accounts was granted on 30 October 2025.
It is thought he was able to circumvent the court order using cryptocurrency to ship money abroad, despite an order from Judge Don Mahon on 3 December 2025 prohibiting Karolia or his family from executing any cryptocurrency transactions.
Moneyweb also understands the police have interviewed Karolia’s family and friends to ascertain his whereabouts, as he stopped answering calls and is believed to have travelled abroad.
Moneyweb previously spoke to Karolia, who disputed many of the facts raised by Ebrahim.
“He told us that the amount of money involved was R26 million, not R44.7 million, of which R20.5 million was sitting in a 60-day Absa call account. Absa has placed a freeze on this account. He also claims to have paid back R5.5 million, though this is at variance with Ebrahim’s court papers, which show an amount of just R1 million had been repaid.”
Ebrahim also argued that Karolia had a gambling problem.
Karolia told Moneyweb this used to be the case, but he had himself voluntarily banned from casinos in 2022.
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