Marimuthu in row with SARS over ‘ influence ’
“SECRET agent” Timmie Marimuthu is facing a probe by the SA Revenue Service — despite allegedly boasting privately that he had SARS boss Oupa Magashula “in his pocket”.
Marimuthu, a convicted drug dealer and friend of suspended police chief General Bheki Cele, is key to the looting of the secret services fund.
Several family members, including his wife and daughter, were made “secret agents”, supposedly as a political favour, and were claiming such things as dental work from the secret services fund.
But despite Marimuthu’s flashy lifestyle — he owns a luxury apartment on Ilala Ridge near Umhlanga and drives several supercars including a Bentley convertible — a number of sources claim he has shortchanged the taxman for years, supposedly because officials turned a blind eye.
SARS sent a letter to Marimuthu on September 29 last year warning him to stop lying about his influence at the agency.
In the letter, deputy commission Ivan Pillay said he heard that Marimuthu was boasting of his “influence over” the appointment of SARS officials. “We advise that it is in your best interests, and those of SARS, that persons close to you desist from making such unfounded statements,” Pillay said.
SARS spokesman Adrian Lackay denied that Marimuthu had any sway over Magashula, or pulled strings to get friends appointed to the tax authority.
“[ Marimuthu] appears to operate as an information pedlar who uses his associations — concocted, perceived or real — with people of influence or authority to further his own ambitions,” he said.
SARS would not confirm or deny if Marimuthu was being probed for underpaying taxes for a number of years, saying the Income Tax Act prevented it from revealing this information.
“SARS would encourage the Sunday Times to inquire from Mr Marimuthu what exactly his status is as a taxpayer from a compliance perspective, and whether he would give written consent to SARS to disclose that information, ” said Lackay.
Asked for consent, Marimuthu’s lawyer, Reg Thomas, said: “No, certainly not. You can’t prove that, because SARS hasn’t confirmed it with you. So how can you prove that [Marimuthu] has been cheating? ”
Thomas denied that Marimuthu had been bragging that Magashula was doing his bidding, and that he organised jobs at SARS for his friends.
But he added: “I’m not going to assist you to verify information you’ve obtained.”
SARS did, however, confirm it would probe tax issues raised by sources who approached the Sunday Times with details of cash purchases of jewellery worth millions of rands and large donations of more than R10-million that Marimuthu made to a Durban church, the New Covenant Fellowship, headed by Basil Tryon.
‘[ Marimuthu] appears to operate as an information pedlar ’
Thomas described any donations that Marimuthu made as “his prerogative”. “I’m not going to comment on what he has done with his funds, because that is his personal money,” he said.
Two sources with first-hand knowledge who did not want to be named, fearing victimisation, claimed that Marimuthu has made large donations both to the church and Tryon personally since 2007.
Within three years Tryon was able to splurge on a beachfront house in La Lucia. Deeds records show Tryon paid R7.3million for the property in 2010 and registered a R3-million bond with Standard Bank, presumably paying the remaining R4.3-million in cash.
Another source claimed that a store in Umhlanga had sold Marimuthu diamond jewellery for more than R3-million in cash — yet had failed to inform the Financial Intelligence Centre as it should have under regulations aimed at preventing moneylaundering. The jewellery store declined to discuss the sale.
investigations@sundaytimes.co.za