Three 'amigos' nabbed in fraud raid
August 26 2010 at 07:53AM Get IOL on your
mobile at m.iol.co.za
They were "amigos" - a name they used affectionately in SMS correspondence with one another.
Now the three friends - Ithala boss and former KwaZulu-Natal Treasury head Sipho Shabalala, former provincial health boss Busi Nyembezi and Cape Town-based billionaire Gaston Savoi - will stand trial accused of ripping off the government.
They, and others accused of being part of the R200-million racket, were subjected to early morning raids on Wednesday by the Asset Forfeiture Unit in which assets valued at R128-million, including their plush homes, smart cars and a R30-million Learjet, were "preserved" pending the outcome of criminal proceedings against them.
Savoi, Nyembezi and several others were also arrested and appeared in court on Wednesday.
Shabalala's arrest is imminent - as is that of his wife, Ntombi, and Durban advocate Sandile Kuboni, according to an affidavit filed in the Pietermaritzburg High Court by top police government fraud investigator Lieutenant-Colonel Piet du Plooy, who along with forensic auditor Trevor White of PricewaterhouseCoopers has been probing their alleged crimes.
They will be charged with fraud, corruption and money-laundering next month, once White's forensic report is finalised.
At the heart of the allegation against Shabalala is that he took a R1-million kickback from Uruguayan businessman Savoi in return for KZN government contracts.
The money was allegedly laundered through the trust account of Kuboni, who was an attorney in a Durban law firm at the time.
Du Plooy said Savoi's explanation in a statement he gave to police that Shabalala had requested the money as a "donation to the ANC" was not true and that it was always a corrupt payment destined from the outset for Shabalala.
While Kuboni had declined to make a statement so far, his trust account records did not reflect any payment to the political party, he said.
"If it was meant to be a donation, then it would not have been necessary to disguise it? It is not a crime to make donations," Du Plooy said.
Shabalala stands to lose his Pietermaritzburg home, his farm and the R12-million Royal Hotel in Pietermaritzburg which he owns with his wife through Blue Serenity Investments.
In total, it is alleged that in KZN and in the Northern Cape, the corrupt award of contracts to Savoi's Intaka Holdings cost the government as much as R200-million.
Du Plooy says there are three separate criminal cases, which relate to the award of tenders to Intaka for the supply of oxygen and water purification plants at six times the price they should have been.
Referring specifically to KZN's departments of health and local government, he says not only |were legitimate procurement processes "fraudulently circumvented" but Intaka grossly inflated its prices. |
