Trillian ‘created to channel funds’
• Former CEO tells parliamentary committee that she was lied to about entity’s plans to become a proudly black-owned consultancy
Gupta-linked firm Trillian Capital was created purely to give 50% of certain revenues to individuals without their doing any work, a whistleblower told Parliament on Friday.
Gupta-linked firm Trillian Capital was created purely to give 50% of certain revenue to individuals without their doing any work, a whistle-blower told Parliament on Friday.
Trillian has been at the centre of state-capture allegations and stands accused of looting parastatals, especially Eskom and Transnet. Reuters reported at the weekend that global consultancy McKinsey worked with Trillian for four months after learning the company was controlled by the Guptas.
Bianca Goodson, who had a stint as CEO of Trillian Management Consulting, the consulting subsidiary of Trillian Capital Partners, told Parliament’s public enterprises committee during its investigation of state-owned entities that she was sold a lie about the company’s intentions before joining it in 2016.
Goodson resigned from Trillian in early April 2016, after about four months with the company.
She resigned after feeling “disempowered” amid concerns of “risky exposure”.
In response to questions from DA MP and public enterprises spokeswoman Natasha Mazzone, Goodson said: “I was told that the intention of the organisation was to improve efficiencies at state-owned entities ....
“In hindsight, I believe that I was lied to blatantly.”
“I was told that Trillian would become … a leading blackowned, proudly South African management consulting company .... Now in hindsight, in my opinion, that entity [Trillian] was created simply to give 50% of certain revenues, I do not know to whom and for what, but for not doing much work,” said Goodson.
Mazzone said: “I want to let you know that it’s my opinion that Trillian was created to siphon money off our stateowned entities … into a direction that certain very powerful people wanted.” Mazzone said at the weekend that the DA would write to the governor of the Reserve Bank of India to report the Guptas’ accounts with the Bank of Baroda. “The DA is of the belief that the Gupta family could be using their accounts with the Bank of Baroda to funnel South African public money out of the country … the money the Gupta family is transferring into their Bank of Baroda accounts was possibly obtained through illegal means,” said Mazzone.
Goodson told MPs that she had been head-hunted in 2015 and recruited by Clive Angel, the executive director of Integrated Capital Management.
Angel had stated to Goodson that Integrated Capital had been given the task of building Trillian.
Integrated Capital consisted predominantly of three individuals: Angel, as director; Marc Chipkin, who was also a director; and another director, Stanley Shane.
Goodson said that she found out later that Shane was also a director at Transnet.
Earlier last week, Trillian Advisory CEO Mosilo Mothepu testified that Shane received R700,000 a month at the firm while he was also at Transnet, a clear conflict of interest.
Goodson said that later on, Mark Pamensky, who was serving on the Eskom board, was introduced to her as the CEO of Trillian Capital Properties, another subsidiary of Trillian Capital.
Angel had told Goodson at one meeting that Salim Esa, widely regarded as a Gupta lieutenant, was the majority shareholder of Trillian, with a 60% shareholding, thus making the company “a fully BEE blackowned organisation”.