The Scorpions believe they might have found a conduit through which Jacob Zuma was paid the R500 000-a-year bribe money that they allege he was given by the French arms dealer Thint.

This has emerged from the letter of request for international assistance that Leonard McCarthy, the Scorpions chief, submitted to the Pretoria High Court on Thursday.

The request was ratified by Judge Ben du Plessis, who asked the "competent authority" in the United Kingdom to assist the Scorpions to get their hands on the document or documents specified in the request.

McCarthy requested details of a payment that would be found at the offices of the London solicitors Berwin Leighton Paisner and/or at the firm's bank, the address of which is given as Barclays Bank, London.

The details relate to a payment or payments made in August 2001 to an entity named Cay Nominees (Pty) Ltd, which made a payment to Zuma, the former deputy president.

The sole shareholder of Cay Nominees is businessman Jurgen Kögl. McCarthy made it clear in his papers that the request was part of a continuing investigation into Zuma.

According to McCarthy, earlier explanations from Kögl regarding the source of the funds to Cay Nominees, and from Cay Nominees to Zuma, were very unsatisfactory.

McCarthy continued: "Apart from [these considerations], there are some indications that the payments may in fact be linked to Thomson/Thales [Thint] and their undertaking to pay Zuma R500 000 per annum as a bribe.

"If so, it appears that Berwin Leighton Paisner's account was used to launder the payment of money from Thomson/Thales to Zuma in accordance with the bribe agreement in the encrypted fax."

McCarthy was referring to the infamous encrypted fax from Alain Thetard, former managing director of Thint in South Africa, in which, following a meeting between himself, Schabir Shaik and Zuma, he set out the details of an alleged bribe for Zuma, in exchange for which Zuma would protect Thint from the then forthcoming arms deal investigations.

During Shaik's trial on charges of corruption and fraud, for which he received 15 years' jail, Judge Hilary Squires, the trial judge, found the fax and its content to be admissible evidence - as did the Supreme Court of Appeal. Neither Zuma nor Thetard, however, gave evidence at the trial.

McCarthy said that according to a document obtained at the Thint offices in South Africa, dated May 17, 1999, Kögl was apparently "authorised to handle matters at that stage" on behalf of one of the forerunner companies of Thint.

In addition, said McCarthy, one of the payments that Kögl had admitted to paying to Zuma in August 2001 was related to a bond for his flat in Killarney, Johannesburg.

"At about the same time and on August 23, 2001, Shaik was meeting Thetard and De Jomaron [Thales representative and Thetard's superior in Mauritius] at the Thales office in Mauritius.

"The evidence … reveals, and Shaik confirmed in his evidence, that Shaik created two documents in Mauritius on that day … [the purpose being] to cause Thomson/Thales to make further payments to Shaik pursuant to this ostensible service provider agreement.

The trial court found that the ultimate purpose of the service-provider agreement was to disguise the payment of the bribe money to Zuma."

McCarthy said the payment to Zuma from Cay Nominees had previously been investigated in connection with the investigation into Shaik, the Nkobi group, the Thales group, Thint and Zuma's wielding of influence on behalf of Shaik and the other companies.

McCarthy said that R1 075 090.80 had been paid to Zuma by Cay Nominees and a total of R1 191 390.12 had been transferred to Cay Nominees by Berwin Leighton Paisner, which also had an office in Paris.

Before the Shaik trial, the Scorpions had tried to find out what the million rands had comprised but affidavits from Kögl had been incomplete and unsatisfactory.

The first affidavit had said that certain amounts had gone to a Michigan Investments CC and were apparently for the purchase of the flat in Killarney.

But the second affidavit appeared to have contradictory information, while the forensic analysis of all the transactions showed that R183 000 had gone into an FNB account of DaimlerChrysler Finance for the account of Zuma.

"It appears that there are numerous contradictions between the affidavits, bank information, accounting records and financial statements - and Kögl's affidavits do not adequately address the source of the R1 191 390.12," said McCarthy.

Phillip Levinsohn, the deputy judge president of KwaZulu-Natal, will give judgment tomorrow on whether he intends to write to the Mauritian authorities to assist the Scorpions in laying their hands on the originals of 13 documents that purportedly incriminate Zuma and Thint.

Judge Levinsohn heard the matter in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on March 22 and 23.

With acknowledgement to Jeremy Gordin and Cape Argus.