NPA gears up for court battles to recoup millions lost in capture
THE National Prosecuting Authority is going after R50-billion worth of assets and cash they say was potentially illegally gained by the architects of state capture‚ including the Gupta brothers.
On Monday it was revealed that the NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) had‚ in December‚ obtained preservation orders worth R1.6-billion against global consultancy McKinsey and Gupta-linked Trillian for work the companies did for Eskom.
It was also revealed that six other similar orders were before the courts awaiting approval.
It has emerged that Trillian had been paid by Eskom without a contract being in place and McKinsey had‚ as the contract holder‚ facil- itated payments of R595-million and just over R1-billion respectively.
Yesterday acting head of the AFU advocate Knorx Molelle provided details of the extensive work the NPA had done so far.
The orders were served on Trillian and McKinsey yesterday.
Molelle said there should be no surprise if another order were granted.
He also came out to bat for muchcriticised NPA director Shaun Abrahams‚ saying that credit for the work in this investigation needed to go to the entire NPA under his stewardship‚ and not the AFU alone.
Molelle said that in terms of the current order‚ both Trillian and McKinsey had indicated their willingness to return the funds.
“We have about 17 matters to the estimated value of around R50-billion that needs to come back to the fiscus‚” he said.
Acting head of the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit Advocate Malini Govender denied rumours that warrants had been issued for the Gupta brothers or any other person in relation to state capture.
Corruption Watch’s David Lewis said the organisation welcomed the order.
However he said Corruption Watch was not confident that “robust and competent” criminal proceedings would be launched while Abrahams was still the head of the NPA.
“Last year the high court‚ pursuant to an application filed by Corruption Watch‚ removed Abrahams from office.” —