The National Prosecuting Authority's Investigating Directorate (ID) has upped the ante to claw back billions looted from Transnet, with a fresh court bid to freeze a further R577m allegedly channelled to Regiments Capital and its bosses, Litha Nyhonyha and Niven Pillay, and ex-boss Eric Wood.
The trio find themselves at the heart of the state capture project, and stand to face charges of corruption, money laundering and fraud for their alleged roles in what the ID's head, Hermione Cronje, has called a criminal conspiracy.
In an affidavit filed this week, Cronje widened the dragnet, detailing additional evidence that shows Transnet paid Regiments R1.685bn - half-a-billion rand more than the R1.108bn she had originally thought.
Cronje said she discovered the extra half-billion in the Fundudzi forensic report into the capture of Transnet and Eskom that was commissioned by the Treasury.
"This evidence shows that the benefit obtained from their unlawful conduct relating to Transnet far exceeds the amount I was aware of," she said in court papers obtained by the Sunday Times.
In November last year, the ID secured a restraint order for R1.108bn in cash, property and assets owned by Wood, Nyhonyha and Pillay, either in their names, in that of Regiments, or in trusts.
The order allows the assets to remain under the care of a curator until the finalisation of criminal proceedings against them. If they are found guilty, those assets will be forfeited to the state.
Fundudzi investigators working on the 2017 report found that between 2014 and 2017 Transnet paid R1,085,786,588 to Regiments Capital, including:
- R105,156,802 in 2014;
- R503,224,614 in 2015;
- R475,226,031 in 2016; and
- R2,179,141 in 2017.
Wood, Nyhonyha and Pillay are accused of working in concert with Gupta lieutenant Salim Essa from 2012. Essa and his cohorts earned millions in "facilitation fees", says Cronje's affidavit, which "ranged between 35% and 75% of the professional fees paid by Transnet and [one of its pension funds] to the Regiments companies".
For no work other than introducing Regiments to Transnet, Essa and the Guptas received many millions in irregular payments through a latticework of shelf companies, the court papers say.
The date for the variation order to be argued before court has not yet been set.
With R600m paid by the Transnet Second Defined Benefit Fund in another tainted deal, the total allegedly stripped from the state-owned enterprise has mushroomed.
The Fundudzi report recommended that former Transnet executives Brian Molefe, Siyabonga Gama, Garry Pita, Anoj Singh, Edward Thomas and Phetolo Ramosebudi face criminal charges.
"Based on the evidence now available, there is reason to believe that the defendants' benefit may significantly exceed the amount of the provisional restraint order," Cronje said in her affidavit, in which she applied to increase the amount of assets under restraint in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
She said Wood, Nyhonyha and Pillay could counter the application, but would have to open their books to scrutiny.
Wood's lawyer, Kevin Hacker, said: "Our client declines to litigate through the media and the falsity of the allegations concerned will be ventilated before court."
Attempts to contact the Regiments directors were unsuccessful.
Late last year, the Sunday Times exposed the lavish life of Wood, who amassed a personal fortune of more than R600m after linking up with Essa. A trove of almost 300,000 e-mails, the #TrillianLeaks, show how Wood lived the high life with a R35m Sandton mansion, a R20m private helicopter and a luxury game farm in Limpopo.
When the NPA moved to restrain his assets, they were unaware of a network of trusts exposed in our report. At the time, Wood denied any impropriety and said he would air his side in court.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.