A middle man at the centre of state capture, in which hundreds of millions of rands were stripped out of Eskom and Transnet, has been living the high life with a R35m Sandton mansion, a R25m game farm and a R20m helicopter.
A trove of almost 300,000 e-mails obtained by the Sunday Times, the #TrillianLeaks, shows how the personal fortune of Eric Wood, the boss of the Trillian group, ballooned just over two years after he met the Guptas and their lieutenant, Salim Essa.
Wood stands to be charged with corruption, money-laundering and fraud, according to an affidavit filed last month by Hermione Cronje, the head of the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA's) Investigating Directorate, which has been tasked with investigating state capture cases.
Any move against Wood by the NPA would be seen as a victory for SA's law enforcement agencies.
But Wood is now pleading poverty in papers before the Supreme Court of Appeal, saying Trillian cannot repay Eskom the R600m in "fees" it received corruptly because Essa, who is living in Dubai, took the money.
In a separate matter before court last month, concerning how Transnet was looted, Wood's 32% stake in Gupta-linked company Regiments Capital was made the subject of a restraint order sought by the NPA directorate, which said Wood could well be convicted of corruption, fraud and money-laundering alongside his two fellow directors.
The order allows for his personal property and the assets held by any of his trusts or other companies to be "restrained" and administered by a curator in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, to prevent him from spiriting away any alleged ill-gotten gains.
But besides Wood's stake in Regiments, the NPA has until now been unaware of many of his other assets, worth many millions of rands.
The #TrillianLeaks reveal the extent of the opulent life led by Wood, who this week declined to comment.
Spreadsheets in the leaks, which Wood compiled, show how his personal fortune grew from his pre-state capture days as an investment banker in 2007, when he was worth R98m, to R166m in 2010.
By 2015, just over two years after he met Essa, Wood's fortune had more than tripled to R619m in shares, property, cash and luxury cars.
In a document titled "Assets and Liabilities of EA Wood as at 24 March 2015", Wood lists his "primary residence" as a R35m mansion in Sandhurst, Johannesburg's most expensive suburb. The property had undergone R7m in renovations that "substantially increased the value of the property".
Also listed under his "fixed assets" is a R13m apartment at the exclusive The Houghton development, a R700,000 stand in Cosmos Ridge, and the 1,059ha Leadwood Private Nature Reserve, "with extensive improvements and game", including a hunting lodge, cottages and a helipad, worth R25m.
In a "farming questionnaire" contained in the leaks, Wood describes the game farm as his weekend getaway destination.
He details the game on the farm - including eland, giraffe, kudu and gemsbok - which had become a sought-after destination for international hunters.
The leaks show the properties were transferred to Wood's Zara Property Trust, but deed searches show the trust no longer has any property registered to it.
The leaks show Wood controls five trusts, but the NPA has so far been aware of one.
Wood's access-controlled Sandhurst property is still listed as his primary address on his company information. The Houghton development property remains the registered address of a company owned by his daughter.
His game reserve manager is still a registered employee of one of Wood's companies, and neighbours told Sunday Times that Wood still uses the game farm.
Not included in his 2015 asset register was the Agusta A119 helicopter Wood subsequently bought for R20m through a shelf company he purchased called Tantacode. The Sunday Times has established that Wood still owns the company. The helicopter, which is regularly chartered from Lanseria Airport, is still registered to the firm.
Bank statements in the #TrillianLeaks show that his spending didn't stop there.
A statement of another of Wood's companies, named Zara W Pty Ltd, reveals a R340,000 splurge in June 2016 at The Vault in Melrose Arch. The Vault, says its website, "sources, trades and buys quality, high-value watches for our discerning clients who not only want to secure a timeless piece, but also a lifetime investment".
The documents do not detail what he bought, but a picture of Wood taken during a company photo-shoot three months earlier indicates his love of expensive watches. In the image he wears a Rolex Daytona worth R360,000, for which, jewellers told the Sunday Times, there is a two-year waiting list.
Christmas 2016 was a festive one for Wood, who travelled to Vietnam on holiday. The #TrillianLeaks include photographs of Wood's family at an exit of an underground tunnel that anti-American forces used during the Vietnam War. Data attached to the pictures shows they were taken with an iPhone 7+, 22km from Ho Chi Minh City.
The 2015 spreadsheet also speaks to Wood's love of luxury cars. At that time he had a collection of six vehicles worth nearly R14.5m, which included a McLaren 650S worth R5.2m, a Porsche 911 Turbo S cabriolet worth R3.1m, and a Ferrari 458 Italia worth R3m.
Wood also lists the vast amount of cash he had on hand at the time, with R20.4m in a Standard Bank call account, R5.6m in an Investec account and a further R2.8m held by Regiments Securities.
His collection of Persian carpets, art and books was valued at R6.4m.
Among his "equity investments" was his 32% stake in Regiments valued at R520m, which has now been restrained by the NPA.
Wood now stands to have his other assets restrained as well. According to the court
order granted last month, Wood is only
allowed to keep his primary residence and items necessary for his day-to-day life. The rest needs to be placed under curatorship.
Curator Trevor Hills could not be reached for comment.
NPA spokesperson Bulelwa Makeke confirmed that at the time the application was launched, "the NPA was not aware of the nature and extent of Dr Wood's interests".
"The order provides for any assets of the defendants to be restrained, and not only those which are specifically listed . All defendants are required to disclose their assets under oath to the curator," she said.
"If it transpires that there are not sufficient assets under restraint to fulfil a confiscation order that may be made in future, or if the value of the restraint order is increased, the possibility cannot be excluded of restraining other assets in which they have an interest, or property held on their behalf."
Wood, however, insists that Trillian has no money.
In his affidavit before the Supreme Court of Appeal in the Eskom case, he says "Trillian had submitted affidavits and financial information revealing no monies or assets from which to satisfy the [high court] judgment" that ordered the company to repay R595m to Eskom.
"Notwithstanding that I am the sole director and indirectly the sole shareholder of both Trillian entities, these companies have been dormant and without assets . and nothing has changed," said Wood.
Wood, through Trillian, was a central figure in the Gupta family's state capture network. He co-founded Trillian with Essa and it extracted millions in "fees" from Eskom.
In June, the high court in Johannesburg ruled that the R595m was the product of a corrupt relationship between Wood, Essa and pliant Eskom officials.
"The probabilities are apparent that the senior officials of Eskom could leave no stone unturned to benefit Trillian; where confidential information belonging to Eskom was leaked to Trillian; where senior personnel of Eskom, who were expected to display the utmost good faith and act in the interests of Eskom; where there appears to be a corrupt relationship between Eskom's senior personnel and the directors of Trillian, justice and equity demand nothing less than the moneys paid to Trillian unjustifiably be returned to Eskom," the judgment states.
Trillian's contract was part of a larger contract with global consultancy McKinsey, for which Regiments was appointed as a "supplier development partner" in 2014.
McKinsey agreed last year to repay Eskom the R1bn it received, but Wood refused to acknowledge that he received the money corruptly - and he maintains this position.
Wood's shares worth millions have also been preserved in connection with the looting of Transnet that he and his former business partners are alleged to have participated in.
Wood, Litha Nyhonyha and Magandheran Pillay established Regiments Capital in 2004. They fell out in late 2015 after Wood took Pillay to the Gupta mansion in Saxonwold where Tony Gupta proposed they sell Regiments to his family.
Wood then established Trillian with Essa but retained his shareholding in Regiments.
In her 100-page affidavit in support of the preservation order, outlining the case against the three, their companies and family trusts, the NPA's Cronje states that it is likely that they would be "charged and convicted of offences including corruption, money-laundering and fraud, from which they benefited in an amount of R1.1bn".
Detailed questions were put to Wood, who referred the Sunday Times to his lawyer, Kevin Hacker, who responded: "Your interrogatories are regrettably misdirected, premised as they are on misconceptions and false assumptions. As such we decline to dignify same with comment or to litigate through the media, particularly given that our client's position will be made clear in the relevant processes that are pending in the appropriate fora, and in due course."
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