Outa lays charge against BnP Capital CEO
THE Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has filed a fraud complaint against the CEO of BnP Capital, the unknown “boutique” financier that was involved in South African Airways’ (SAA’s) botched debt funding, for failing to disclose that the company’s licence had been suspended by the Financial Services Board (FSB).
Outa on Thursday said it had filed the complaint against Daniel Mahlangu at OR Tambo police station based on investigations it had conducted on irregularities at the national carrier.
Ivan Herselman, Outa’s director of legal affairs, said it had handed evidence to the police, who would conduct an investigation.
But Mahlangu told Business Day he was not aware of any criminal charges filed against him by Outa. “I have not received any notice of anything. But they are within their right to do whatever they want.”
Outa’s move comes as SAA was due to table its annual financial results for 2014-15 and 2015-16 in Parliament on Thursday, and the Treasury confirmed the airline had met the deadline.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan also confirmed on Tuesday that SAA had R19bn in state guarantees and had made losses of R4.7bn in 2014-15 and R1.8bn in 2015-16.
The complaint against Mahlangu relates to his failure to inform the national carrier that BnP Capital’s licence had been suspended by the FSB, despite knowing this was “critical criteria for a successful tender”.
Mahlangu is also accused of fraudulently misrepresenting the fact that parties would serve on his project team when they did not know of the company.
Outa also wants Mahlangu to be criminally charged for trying to persuade SAA to pay a R49.9m cancellation fee.
However, Herselman said Mahlangu was unlikely to be the mastermind behind the suspect actions. “He just signed everything. So, it seems he was unfortunately set up as the fall guy.”
Herselman said: “We hope he will use this as an opportunity for him to come out with the truth.”
He was unable to give more information on the evidence provided to the police because the investigation was at a sensitive stage, Herselman said.
When the deal was called off, SAA said BnP Capital was selected from seven bidders.
Two companies were disqualified “as they failed to meet the critical criteria, [which was] … the existence of a valid and current FSB-issued licence”.
SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali would not be drawn on questions about the criminal charges, saying only that the airline would cooperate with the investigation.
Earlier in July, Outa disclosed that BnP Capital’s licence was suspended by the FSB and threatened to take legal action against SAA if it did not terminate the deal.
The national carrier then cancelled the deal, but chairwoman Dudu Myeni still wanted to pay BnP Capital a cancellation fee.
In the fallout, SAA suspended its treasurer, Cynthia Stimpel, who had objected to the appointment of BnP Capital.
SAA has since gone to the market on its own to raise R16bn in funding and issued a request for proposals to interested funders in August.
However, the tender had a lukewarm response from local banks.