The sequence of the developments which led to Tony Yengeni's fall from grace:

September 15, 1998: A luxury 4X4 vehicle is dispatched from Daimler Chrysler's East London plant. It arrives in the Johannesburg stockyard on October 19.

According to the Sunday Times, the vehicle was ordered as a private staff vehicle by Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace.

October 1998: It is registered in Tony Yengeni's name in Pretoria. A few days later it is registered in Cape Town in Yengeni's name.

March 1999: The car is insured.

May 1999: Yengeni enters into finance agreement with Daimler Chrysler.

July 1999: A newspaper receives a letter suggesting Yengeni explain how he came to own the car.

September 1999: Yengeni tells a press conference that he is paying for the car.

March 25, 2001: The Sunday Times breaks the story, asking how a vehicle ordered by a company involved in the R43-billion arms deal ended up in Yengeni's possession.

Yengeni was head of the joint standing committee for defence which played a role in the decision to buy the arms in the first place. Yengeni dismisses the allegations, saying they are lies and hogwash, but refused to say how he acquired the vehicle.

April 2001: Yengeni tables documentation to the parliamentary's ethics committee that he had bought the vehicle and that it had not been a gift as required by the rules of parliament to be declared.

February 2003: Yengeni admits to fraud at the Commercial Crime Court in Pretoria. He confirmed that he lied by falsely inflating the price as R230 052 when in fact he paid only R182 563 for the vehicle, by claiming that he paid a deposit of R50 000 and that he lied in full-page advertisement in newspapers claiming there was nothing improper about the deal and that he also lied to parliament.

He is found guilty of fraud.

March 2003: He resigns.

With acknowledgement to Daily News.