Investigations into the German submarine
deal with Greece has peeled away another
layer of fraudulence. The German firm
Ferrostaal, is suspected of paying bribes to
politicians through a Greek company in the
German submarine deal with Greece. At the
same time, prosecutors are trying to
determine whether Greece overpaid or agreed
to deals for military equipment it did not
need.
With acknowledgements to Anna Majavu and Sowetan.
Sound
familiar?
It sounds familiar because it is familiar.
Ferrostaal is another company whose business
model is bribery and corruption. Mainly
international bribery and corruption.
Just like its sister company Thyssen.
Both companies are now part of the
conglomerate Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems.
Ferrostaal supplied coastal submarines to
the SA Navy. Submarines it did not need and
cannot afford to run.
Thyssen supplied frigates to the SA Navy.
Frigates it did not need and cannot afford
to run.
All familiar.
Ferrostaal also bribed the Portuguese
authorities to buy submarines.
But while investigations are ongoing in
Portugal and Greece, they were never
followed through either in South Africa or
Germany, albeit that the German
investigating authorities found a mountain
of documentary evidence that Ferrostaal paid
even bigger bribes to win the South African
submarine deal than Thyssen did to win the
South Africa frigate deal.
This evidence was found when Ferrostaal was
raided when searching for evidence relating
to Thyssen's deal. By they Thyssen Krupp had
purchased Ferrostaal and so the former was
warehousing its tax and other documents at
is sister company's premises in Essen.
Thyssen is based in Dusseldorf.
And they found the motherload - implicating
both Thyssen and Ferrostaal.
You see, in those days (pre 1999) bribes to
foreign officials were tax deductible as
"useful expenditure". So not only are the
transactions recorded, they appear almost
indelibly in the company's tax records,
income statements and expense statements.
But the groot koppe at both Thyssen and
Ferrostaal have prevailed upon Dr Angela
Merkel to otherwise defeat and delete the
investigations against them in South Africa.
The same way as things were done in France
to thwart the investigation there against
Thomson-CSF.
But an important question that should be
asked by the critical, why are
investigations allowed to proceed against
giant multinationals in foreign countries,
yet invariably get abandoned in South
Africa, a relatively unimportant member of
the internal community.
It is because it involves politicians right
to the very top in each country, starting
off with Mandela and Mbeki in South Africa,
John Major and Tony Blair in the UK and
Helmut Kohl in Germany. They made those
deals. These were the genuine smoky room
deals.
Now no-one wants to go anywhere near looking
at the involvement of Saint Nelson and his
absolutely corrupted ANC.
Saint Nelson even gave R3 million of his own
money to Jacob Zuma when it was made known
to the former that the latter was falling
under the spell of Schabir Shaik and
Thomson-CSF due to his enormous consumption
of viagra and other family expenses.
Where did Nelson get this money?
Where did his wife Winnie, then chairwoman
of the ANC Women';s League get their R72
million cut?
From Thyssen, Ferrostaal and Thomson-CSF
that's where.
Probably around R300 million, R350 million
and R300 million respectively (all 1999
Rands), that's how much.
In the meantime British Aerospace lashed out
with R1 200 million. About R200 million was
in overt payments as overt commissions.
Richard Charter could be said to deserve
about R20 million of this as his share of
the overt commissions. But he also got
another R100 million or so as covert
commissions. But he's now dead.
Altogether the graft on the Arms Deal was
about R2 billion out of R30 billion (all
1999 Rands), about 7,5%.
Funny that's about twice what I estimated it
to be in an interview in circa 2001/2 with
Dr Peter Bachelor and Prof Paul who were
doing a study into the financial aspects of
the Arms Deal on behalf of the Dept of
Finance.