Johannesburg - A court case in Portugal is threatening to reveal alleged skeletons from the apartheid and sanctions years in Armscor's closet.

A go-between, who apparently helped to acquire the air force's 50 Oryx helicopters, is suing Armscor for almost $300m (about R2.4bn) and the same amount in interest because he never received his commission on the transaction.

It was alleged that some of this money landed in the pockets of former Armscor employees, one of whom apparently bought property in France with his share of the "profit".

The shipping costs for the transport of the helicopter engines were also apparently "loaded" with hundreds of thousands of rands, which landed up in the corrupt hands of those who were allegedly involved.

Armscor opposing claim

Armscor confirmed on Tuesday that it had been sued in the preliminary hearing, which would take place in the commercial court in Lisbon.

A Portuguese legal team would handle the claim, which Armscor is opposing.

The company, Beverly Securities Ltd, belonging to the go-between, Jorge Pinhol, simultaneously began legal action against a Belgian bank, KBC, in the commercial court in Brussels, Belgium.

The bank's predecessor apparently handled the money transfer from South Africa to the French manufacturer Aerospatiale (that today forms part of Eurocopter).

It was also responsible for paying Pinhol's commission.

Project Adenia began in the 1980s when the South African Air Force had an urgent need for medium transport helicopters.

Pinhol aided negotiations according to which the Portuguese air force, with the quiet approval of the Portuguese government, initially would have bought upgrading systems for the South African Puma helicopters.

Couldn't afford guarantees

The negotiations went so well that the order was extended to comprise complete helicopters, which were to be assembled in South Africa.

The contract was signed in 1988 and the last helicopters were delivered to South Africa long after the new regime came to power in the country in 1994.

In 1994, Pinhol was unsuccessful in a Pretoria High Court case against Armscor because, as a foreign claimant, he had had to provide monetary guarantees for the costs of the dispute and he had been unable to do so.

In 1996, he was also unsuccessful in a claim against Eurocopter in France when the court ruled that his claim had nothing to do with the manufacturer, but rather with the Portuguese government and Armscor.

Since then, he apparently has obtained statements from former Armscor employees and about 30kg of documentation about the Oryx transaction has been taken from South Africa to serve as evidence.

The contract between Pinhol and Armscor apparently was stored in the South African Embassy in Paris and Pinhol had never been able to get hold of it.

Armscor recently denied that he was entitled to commission.

The payments, however, had in the meantime been traced to Panama and Liberia, among other countries, with the help of a Swiss auditor who specialised in tracking money laundering.

With acknowledgements to Erika Gibson and News24.