Cops want diamond money back
THE THIRTEEN accused in the Illicit Diamond Buying (IDB) Project Darling trial, have been issued with claims for compensation from the South African Police Service, who is now demanding millions of rands allegedly already paid by the accused for the diamonds purchased during the uncover operation.
The accused yesterday expressed outrage after they were served with several “Notice of Claim for Compensation” by the SAPS, in which they were ordered to pay individual amounts, amounting to millions of rands, which they allegedly paid for diamonds during the transactions that led to their arrests.
The notices are from the Office of the Provincial Commander: Loss Management SAPS.
According to the notices, the amounts mentioned relate to the “Loss of State Property (State Diamonds) during Project Darling”.
The amounts (on the notices) correlates with the amounts allegedly paid by the accused during the undercover operation (according to the indictment). The notice instructs the accused to pay the amounts within 30 days of receiving the notice, with alternative payment options attached.
The accused were yesterday flabbergasted and said that the notices appeared to be a trap, attempting to force them to pay the amounts and thereby admit guilt.
“How can the police now want money from us when they allege we paid these amounts during the undercover diamond buying transactions? What happened to that money? Something really fishy is going on.”
The thirteen accused – Ashley Brooks, Patrick Mason, Manojkumar Detroya, Komilan Packirisamy, Ahmed Khorani, Antonella Florio-Poone, McDonald Visser, Willem Weenink, Sarel van Graaf, Carl van Graaf, Kevin Urry, Trevor Pikwane and Frank Perridge – are accused of illegal diamond dealing, the possession and sale of unpolished diamonds, money laundering and racketeering, following several police operations involving an undercover agent.
During yesterday’s proceedings, the State prosecutor, Theunis Barnard, called Lieutenant Colonel John Walters Serfontein as a State witness.
Serfontein is an (data) analyst for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DCPI) and was appointed as an analyst for Project Darling responsible for analysing cellphone data received from service providers like Cell C, Vodacom and MTN to find links between the targets (accused), undercover agents and police officials.
Serfontein testified that he first became involved in Project Darling during 2011 following a presentation by the case’s Investigating Officer, Warrant Officer Louis Potgieter, that implicated several suspects in the illegal diamond trade.
During 2012, he was tasked to profile and analyse certain suspects whose names and numbers were provided to him by Potgieter.
Serfontein yesterday read into the record the names (of the accused) and telephone numbers (utilised by them) for which a Section 205 application was applied for, as well as the telephone numbers of accused where there were no Section 205 applications.
He said that analysis was conducted with regard to count 2 to 28 but that some “difficulties” were experienced as a result of the non-availability of data. Analysis was done on the cellphone records on the dates when the alleged transactions took place, as well as the day before.
He testified that no data was available for Brooks and Detroya, with regard to count 2, for Brooks and Mason, with regard to count 3, for Brooks, Detroya and Khorani, with regard to count 5 or for Brooks and Sarel van Graaff, with regard to count 6.
He added that data sheets were not compiled for counts 2, 3, 5 and 6 as no data was available for the accused.
The reason given for this was that it was only realised in November 2016, that no data was available and that the service providers, who were again served with Section 205 applications, could only go back three years with their records, while counts 2, 3, 5 and 6 allegedly took place between March, and April 2013.
Serfontein is expected to continue with his testimony when the trial, being heard by Judge Bulelwa Pakati, resumes today.