Publication: Business Day Issued: Date: 2007-02-05 Reporter: Tamar Kahn

Chippy Shaik ‘Asked for Arms Bribe’

 

Publication 

Business Day
Date 2007-02-05

Reporter

 Tamar Kahn

Web Link

www.businessday.co.za

 

CAPE TOWN ­ German investigators are probing a $3m bribe allegedly paid by Germany’s largest steel maker, ThyssenKrupp, to former defence force arms procurement head Shamin “Chippy” Shaik to smooth its path to clinching a €350m deal to supply SA with patrol corvettes.

According to an article published in yesterday’s edition of German magazine Der Spiegel, the alleged bribe for the first time places government’s arms procurement chief at the centre of alleged corruption *1 in SA’s controversial R30bn arms deal.

This latest information emerged from a broader investigation by German authorities into ThyssenKrupp.

The article in Der Spiegel was brought to South African journalists’ attention by Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille, who returned yesterday from meetings in the UK and Germany with investigators probing information contained in the “De Lille Dossier”. She declined to comment on the talks, or on the contents of the dossier, which she has previously said contains documents leaked to her by ANC MPs with information about irregularities in the arms deal.

German authorities are investigating ThyssenKrupp for allegedly breaching the law governing the payment of bribes, which prior to February 1999 were not illegal and could be written off as “useful expenses”. Authorities are probing the timing of $25m in bribes allegedly paid by ThyssenKrupp in the corvette deal, to see whether some or all of the payments occurred after bribes became illegal *2.

Der Spiegel said the investigation has uncovered internal company memos describing how Shaik met representatives from ThyssenKrupp in 1998, and requested a $3m bribe. After negotiations were concluded in December 1999, the money was paid into a fake “mailbox company” in London called Merian in April 2000. The article does not directly link Merian to Shaik.

The German investigation has been running for more than a year, and in November police raided the Hamburg offices of ThyssenKrupp’s ship-building subsidiary, Blohm & Voss.

ThyssenKrupp declined to speak to Der Spiegel, saying only that it was conducting its own inquiry into the matter, and was co-operating with authorities.

At the time of going to press, the Shaik family’s spokesman, Mo Shaik, had not responded to a request for comment.

De Lille said German authorities were finalising the paperwork on a request for legal assistance from the South African government, and urged local authorities to assist them.

With acknowledgements to Tamar Kahn and Business Day.


*1       I have always maintained who is at the centre of corruption in the Arms Deal.


*2      When the bribes were paid has no relevance whatsoever in the Republic of South Africa. If bribes were received in the RSA then, other than prescription under the Statute of Limitations, this is an indictable criminal offence in this country.

Mr National Director of Public Prosecutions, we are awaiting your obligatory move in the right direction.