Hawks pounce on Agrizzi
THE Hawks said two more people were expected to be arrested following the arrest of five suspects, including former Bosasa chief operations officer Angelo Agrizzi, for fraud to the value of R1.6 billion.
Agrizzi, Andries van Tonder, Frans Vorster and Carlos Bonafacio, along with former Correctional Services chief financial officer Patrick Gillingham, appeared before the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court yesterday and were granted R20 000 bail each.
Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi said two of the suspects were not in Gauteng but arrangements were being made for their cases to be processed in the province.
“Five people were arrested. There are two outstanding; the identify of these people cannot be revealed as yet,” Mulaudzi said.
He said a sixth person, who was overseas, had been informed that there was a warrant for his arrest.
The suspects are facing charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering, relating to Correctional Services contracts awarded to Bosasa.
“It is alleged that the officials received and accepted gifts in the form of cash. They also allegedly received financial assistance in acquiring properties, acquiring motor vehicles from dealers, other assets and payments to travel agents for overseas travel,” Mulaudzi said.
Three companies, namely African Global Operations (formerly Bosasa) and two Bosasa subsidiaries, Sondolo IT and Phezulu Fencing, were also included in the charge sheet.
Agrizzi in his testimony before the Zondo inquiry implicated current Bosasa executives, senior government officials and top ANC leadership in acts of bribery, money laundering, fraud and corruption.
He also revealed that the company deleted 40 000 documents implicating executives in corruption days before the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) could access them.
The head of the SIU, advocate Andy Mothibi, has welcomed the arrests.
The DA, however, said though it welcomed the arrests, it was not satisfied that Bosasa chief executive Gavin Watson was not among those arrested despite testimonies placing him at the centre of the scheme.
DA MP Natasha Mazzone said: “Testifying under oath, former Bosasa employee Richard le Roux revealed that he was instructed, on numerous occasions, by Gavin Watson and Angelo Agrizzi to delete security footage captured at Bosasa offices.
“Le Roux testified that, on one such occasion, he saw and deleted footage of former president Jacob Zuma, accompanied by Bheki Cele and Dudu Myeni. This follows marathon testimony by Agrizzi which described Zuma and Myeni’s relationship with Bosasa and detailed alleged cash payments and gifts,” Mazzone said.
The five suspects are expected to make their second court appearance on March 27.