Schabir Shaik
Photograph by: Jackie Clausen
Schabir Shaik may have fallen foul of the law again.
Today the Sunday Times can reveal that the convicted
fraudster is listed as a director of a firm that was once a subsidiary
of the Nkobi Group, a company that had a key stake in South Africa's
controversial arms deal.
President Jacob Zuma's former benefactor is listed as a director of
KobiProp. He could now face further criminal action.
Section 218 of the Companies Act specifically states that "any person
who has been removed from office for not being a fit and proper person
to serve as a director ... due to theft, fraud, forgery, uttering a
forged document (and) corruption ... shall be guilty of an offence".
Court-appointed curator Trevor White, tasked with administering and
overseeing the forfeiture of Shaik's assets, has confirmed that his
directorship is "illegal" as Shaik "has been convicted".
He said: "It's in contravention of the Companies Act."
KobiProp was previously a subsidiary of Nkobi Group, which was fined for
corruption during Shaik's high court case in which he was convicted of
fraud and corruption.
On Friday, Shaik's lawyer, Reeves Parsee, said his client was
investigating why he was still listed as a director.
"I spoke to Mr Shaik. He said he had given his accountants instructions
to resign himself from KobiProp.
''He doesn't know why this hasn't been reflected."
But the Sunday Times, has, through various records, established that:
- Shaik is the sole, "active" director of KobiProp, according to the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro);
- KobiProp owns Shaik's 2088mē luxury Morningside, Durban home where he is serving his house arrest;
- KobiProp secured a R3-million bond from Absa Bank to buy the house for R4.5-million in 2002; and
- The company was in the process of being deregistered in November 2009 but this was cancelled in March last year.
Twenty-one other companies where Shaik was a director were
deregistered only nine months ago - five years after he was convicted
and sentenced to 15 years in jail for fraud and corruption in June 2005.
On June 8 2005, Shaik announced on the steps of the Durban High Court
that he would resign as director and CEO of his Nkobi Group of companies
with immediate effect.
"Today is the juncture from which I part from my business," he said.
The companies deregistered on July 16 last year include Chartley
Investments, Floryn Investments, KobiMed, KobiTech, Kobi-Venson, St
Lucia Concessions, Nkobi Investments and Nkobi Holdings.
Four months after Shaik was released from prison on medical parole on
March 3 2009, he registered a company, Wethersfield Trading.
The company has since also been deregistered.
Legal experts this week said it was "illegal" for someone convicted of
fraud to be a director of any company.
This is even if that company owned only one asset which did not generate
any revenue, said Claire Mcgee, an associate partner at Shepstone &
Wylie.
Late yesterday, Schabir said he has resigned as a director of KobiProp.
"I resigned as a director from all the companies within the KobiGroup
and appointed our company's senior accountant as a director. In
addition, all company duties, functions and responsibilities were
transferred to the incumbent chairman and CEO Moe Shaik, as recommended
by all shareholders," he said.
"As far as I am concerned I had signed all the necessary company
resignation documents and would have expected that between the company's
internal accountants and auditors, this secretarial matter would have
been resolved."
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Clearly Schabir feels that he needs the protection of a limited liability company as a juristic person for some of his dealings.
And so takes the risk of being as director in terms of CIPRO.
But, good on them Sunday Times, they have a zero tolerance approached to criminals and so should the NPA.
It's just a huge pity that the opportunistic NPA forsook its duty and let poor old Schabir's co-criminals free.
and
Alain Peter Thetard
on behalf of
Thomson-CSF
and
Jacob Zuma
joined later by
Leonard McCarthy
a stooge in NPA clothing