|
Mac's secrets |
| Publication |
City Press |
| Date | 2011-11-27 |
| Reporter |
Julian Rademeyer Andrew Trench |
| Web Link | www.citypress.com |
Sport minister Mac Maharaj told the Scorpions
but doesn’t want you to know.
Today, City Press is publishing details of the controversial transcripts of
Maharaj’s 2003 grilling by the Scorpions.
It is a matter of public record and has been so for more than four years
since edited extracts appeared in this newspaper in April 2007 under the
headlines “Mac fights back”
*1 and “Inside
the Maharaj interrogation” *2 .
At the time, Maharaj – now President Jacob Zuma’s spin doctor – made no
attempt to prevent their publication, nor did he seek to initiate a criminal
investigation against the reporters who wrote the stories.
But when the Mail & Guardian (M&G) attempted to publish an article based on
the transcripts last week – alleging that Maharaj had lied during the
interrogation – he first threatened the newspaper with legal action and then
filed criminal complaints against two of its reporters.
Yesterday, Maharaj’s attorney, Rudi Krause, threatened City Press, saying:
“I can give you the assurance that should you even republish the 2007
article, we will lay a criminal charge against you and the newspaper ...
“Should you publish now, it will serve to confirm that you or the newspaper
are still in the unlawful possession of the documentation.”
Krause said Maharaj could also lay charges in connection with the 2007
publication.
If Maharaj lied to the Scorpions in his secret interview, he is in trouble.
Lying during the interview is a criminal offence punishable by up to 15
years in prison.
His statements contradict details of substantial payments the Maharaj couple
received from convicted fraudster and Zuma’s former financial adviser,
Schabir Shaik, and his companies. The statements also contradict details
that they had operated a network of foreign bank accounts through which
these payments flowed.
The payments were made when Maharaj was transport minister and when his
department was involved in awarding two lucrative tenders. Shaik benefited
from the tenders.
In 2007, City Press reported that Maharaj and his wife, Zarina, told the
Scorpions during questioning that:
» They had no offshore bank accounts in Switzerland;
» They had received no money from Shaik or his companies;
» All monies received offshore were earned by Zarina Maharaj as part of her
work for the Geneva-based International Trade Centre, General Electric and
Xerox;
» The family’s Milsek Investment Trust account was “dormant” when it had in
fact received two payments of R100 000 – one of them from a company in
Shaik’s Nkobi Holdings group; and
» They did not know where the money paid into the Milsek account came from
or who used it.
But the details of an investigation published by City Press in 2007
seriously contradicted these statements.
The newspaper detailed a money trail leading to offshore bank accounts in
Switzerland, the British Virgin Islands and France.
More than $200 000 was paid from Minderley Investments, an offshore company
set up by Shaik, into a Swiss account opened by Zarina Maharaj.
She opened the account just two days before the
first payment from Minderley in 1996.*3
They were the only deposits made into the account until it was closed
in April 2000.
These details have subsequently been repeated by the Sunday Times and M&G.
During Maharaj’s tenure, his department awarded two now-controversial
tenders.
One was for the upgrade of the N3 toll road between Durban and Johannesburg
at a cost of R2.5 billion.
Shaik’s Nkobi Holdings was part of the consortium that netted the tender.
The other tender, a R265 million contract for credit card driver’s licences,
benefited Nkobi Holdings, French arms company Thomson-CSF (now Thales) and
South African weapons firm Denel.
Last week, the Sunday Times revealed a copy of a “consultancy” agreement
between Thomson-CSF and Minderley Investments.
According to the newspaper, the agreement shows that secret payments
totalling 1.2 million French francs went from a Thomson-CSF bank account to
a Swiss account held by Zarina just two months before the driver’s licence
tender was awarded.
These details corroborate those reported by City Press in 2007.
Maharaj has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, saying this week: “I have not
been involved in corruption, bribery or broken any law.”
He has refused to confirm or deny whether he and his wife had lied to the
Scorpions.
Maharaj’s 2003 interrogation took place in terms of section 28 of the
National Prosecuting Authority Act.
It’s a strict measure that strips a person who has been summoned of the
right to silence and one that stipulates that a failure to appear or answer
questions truthfully is an offence punishable by a fine, imprisonment or
both.
Hawks spokesperson McIntosh Polela said
yesterday the fact that City Press had previously published details of the
transcript “will have an impact on our investigation because then the
information will already be public knowledge”. *4
“We would like City Press to provide us with the story so that we can
see if we are investigating something that is already in the public domain.
We will then make a decision from there.” *1*2
City Press yesterday provided the published reports to Polela.
With acknowledgements to Julian Rademeyer, Andrew Trench and City Press.
*3
Schabir Shaik's Minderley Investments Swiss bank account was with
Banque SCS Alliance Geneva with Account No. 95436.
Zarina Maharaj's Swiss bank account was with Banque SCS Alliance Geneva with
Account No. 95437.
These are consecutively numbered bank
accounts at the same bank.
They were clearly opened at the same time, probably by Shaik.
Has there ever been a clearer case of corruption and international money
laundering?
*4
It would be the most delicious of justice should Mac Maharaj get 15 iyears
in the pen for lying under oatch in a Section 28 interview.
That would mean that Schabir Shaik would not have to risk another 15 years
in the pen for corrupting the minister of transport.
Zarina Maharaj meanwhile can get 5 years in the pen for money laundering,
forex violations and tax evasion while Scabir still keeps to Morningside and
not Westville.
Sounds like a scrumptious deal only superseded by 30 years in the pen, 15
for perjury and 15 for corruption and to run consecutively.
Has Squires gone to pasture yet?
Hope springs.
*1
Actually slightly wrong: there were two main stories, Mac’s
foreign stash and Mac fights back.
Inside the Maharaj interrogation
is probably a companion piece to one of them.
A legal opinion might be required with this one.
*1
Mac’s foreign stash
City Press
Makhudu Sefara
2007-03-24
http://www.citypress.co.za/SouthAfrica/News/Macs-foreign-stash-20100615
The Scorpions’ investigation of former Transport Minister Mac Maharaj
and his wife, Zarina, is centred on millions of
rands stashed in foreign accounts.
City Press has traced a sizeable number of questionable payments made by,
among others, Jacob Zuma’s jailed former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik.
They were made into accounts belonging to Maharaj or his wife in the Isle of
Man, the UK and in Zurich and Geneva.
City Press has also established that Shaik, former boss of Nkobi Holdings,
used a company he established offshore called Minderly Investment to put
money into a Banque SCS Alliance account belonging to Zarina Maharaj.
A four-month City Press investigation has revealed that the
account was operational between 1996 and 2000
when Maharaj was transport minister. In that time, his department
awarded two multimillion-rand tenders for the credit-card drivers’ licences
and the N3 toll road construction between Johannesburg and Durban.
Shaik, who was also a director of Thomson, or
his companies, benefited in both.
City Press can reveal that Maharaj’s wife opened a bank account on
October 14, 1996 and closed it on April 6, 2000. Only two credit transfers
were made into the account in that period – both were from Shaik’s offshore
company.
On October 16, 1996, 579 999 French francs, then estimated at US $111 111,
were deposited into Zarina Maharaj’s Banque SCS Alliance account by Shaik’s
company. Shaik’s Minderly account was opened on October 11, 1996 and Zarina
Maharaj’s, three days later.
On March 13, 1997, $100 000 was deposited into the same account by Minderly,
which had Shaik as its only signatory. Six days after the first payment, $96
000 was debited from this account to another in Zarina Maharaj’s name at
Allied Dunbar Bank. About 27 days after the second payment, $65 000 was
debited to this account. It was opened by her in the 1980s. In 2000, a $54
268 cheque was issued to her and the account was closed.
Documents in City Press’s possession show that
Shaik’s Swiss account had two credit transfers made for 1.2 million French
francs from Banque Paribas Paris. It is believed investigators want
to establish who Shaik’s funders in Paris are. It is well known that Paris
is the head office of French arms firm Thint. It is accused with Shaik of
paying bribes to Zuma. It is common cause that
Thint, then called Thomson-CSF, had a 33.3% share in the R650 million
drivers’ licence tender. The payments made to the Maharajs were in
1996 and 1997. A decision on the credit-card licence was announced in 1998
and the N3 tender process was finalised in June 1998.
A letter from the Scorpions’ director of investigations, Thanda Mngwengwe,
shows that the Scorpions have made an application under the International
Co-operation in Criminal Matters Act to the Swiss Federal Department of
Justice and Police to get the full scope of the origins and “further flow of
funds” in foreign countries for “possible prosecution of Maharaj and/or Z
Maharaj and/or Shaik”.
This raises the possibility that Shaik could
again find himself in the dock for allegedly paying money to the Maharajes
after which he and Thint benefited from the contracts. Investigators also
want amounts of $95 979 and $64 979 marked “B/O CREDIT SUISSE” in Zarina
Maharaj’s account explained.
The payment dates show they were received before crucial decisions by
Maharaj’s department on the two tenders. At the time, Maharaj was planning
to retire from politics in 1999.
Late last year, Maharaj launched an application at the Pretoria High Court
seeking a declaratory order against sections of the National Prosecuting
Authority which, he said in papers, were “inconsistent” with the
Constitution.
A source said then that the move followed summonses served on him and his
wife to appear before Mngwengwe to answer questions on what was termed the
“Swiss matter”. In terms of Section’s 28 subsections (6) (8) and (10), a
person being summoned has no right to silence, can only leave when told to
and a failure to appear and telling an untruth are considered offences for
which a person could be jailed or fined or both.
City Press has established that Maharaj appeared on June 19, 2003 and Zarina
the next day before Advocate Annemarie Friedman, who led the interrogations.
Maharaj has now asked the Pretoria High Court to stop Scorpions
investigators from using the information sourced from him and his wife. He
argues that it was obtained using sections of the law which, in his view,
were unconstitutional.
Approached for comment, Maharaj said he did not wish to comment about the
claims against him. “Talk to my attorney. Forcing me to comment would be
asking me to act improperly,” said Maharaj.
City Press is in possession of two letters dated July 29, 2005 to Maharaj
and his wife by Scorpions’ Gauteng head Gerrie Nel. It is an invitation to
them to clear contradictions and apparent omissions after their
interrogations.
A September 30, 2005 reply from Maharaj’s lawyer, Rudi Krause, says “no
crime whatsoever has been committed”.
Krause said yesterday that the case was “at a stage where it is being
attended to by my colleague Mr Claasen who, unfortunately, is on leave”.
In a follow-up letter, Nel writes: “We have an authorised investigation
during which your clients gave evidence. We are
now at the point of making decisions regarding the investigation *1.
Your clients’ co-operation would put us in a better position to make
decisions, but is not essential.”
*1
The Gerrie Nel letter to the Maharajs is dated 29 July 2005.
The G. Nel/ A.L. Friedman letter to the Swiss Federal Office for Justice is
dated 8 February 2007.
That's nearly five years ago.
Where the justice in this?
Surely the NPA has an obligation to make these decisions and the public has
a right to know what these decisions are?
There are scoundrels on the loose and the NPA is aiding and abetting in
preventing tightening up on them.
Gerrie Nel is arguing today at the SCA in Bloemfontein that Chacma Selebi
has a stash that he cannot explain.
The Chacma is about to have his 15 years of incarceration confirmed by the
SCA.
Mac Maharaj has a far bigger stash that neither he can explain and it is in
forex which is unlawful.
The difference is that this Chacma is such an ape that even Mbeki the
lowlife gorilla had to let him go.
Mac decided to give up his directorship at First Rand Bank and become Jacob
Zuma's pro bono spokesman in order to reap the benefit of his presidential
protection to keep himself and his wife out of the slammer for 15 years, as
well as to prevent Billy Downer and the du Plooys from having a second bite
at the cherry of getting Schabir Shaik admitted into the Penitentiary
Sanatorium for another 2 years.
Shame on all ye scoundrels.
By the way it's nearly Christmas and so it's riddle time again.
This time there's a small prize.
The Prize
The winners get a free tour around the Cape Peninsula National Park to
view the assortment of thieving male and female chacmas therein.
The Questions
As the prize is very substantial I have to ask a lot of very difficult
questions.
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5
Q6
Q7
Q8
Q9
Q10
Good luck.
*2
Mac fights back
City Press
Makhudu Sefara
2007-03-31
http://www.citypress.co.za/SouthAfrica/News/Mac-fights-back-20100615
Former Transport Minister Mac Maharaj and his wife Zarina have launched
a desperate bid to extricate themselves from pending
fraud, corruption, money-laundering and tax
prosecutions.
City Press also established this week that the Maharaj family has launched,
in addition to Pretoria High Court action, a parallel application in
Switzerland to stop Scorpions investigators from using
damning information about them obtained during
an investigation into jailed mega-fraudster Schabir Shaik.
It is alleged Shaik paid the Maharaj family millions of rands in
connection with a lucrative credit-card format driving licence contract and
an N3 toll road contract. But when Scorpions investigators turned up the
heat against the struggle hero and his wife, they had “no recollection” of
what they were being asked about. They said:
They had no foreign accounts in Switzerland.
They received no money from Shaik or his companies offshore.
That all monies they received outside the country, specifically in Britain,
were earned by Zarina following her work at a British government overseas
development agency, the Geneva-based International Trade Centre, General
Electric and Xerox International.
That their Milsek Investment Trust account was “dormant” when, in fact,
there were two payments of R100 000 each paid into the account in November
1996.
Last week, City Press exposed a trail of money stashed in various
undisclosed accounts in Britain, Switzerland and France.
Documents showed that Minderly Investments, a company Shaik had established
offshore, had deposited two lump-sum payments of $100 000 and $111 111 into
an account belonging to Zarina.
This week, City Press learned that the couple, who launched a Pretoria High
Court battle against sections of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)
Act they deem unconstitutional in November, also launched another court
battle in Switzerland against the NPA.
In that action, Maharaj uses Swiss laws to argue that their Mutual Legal
Assistance offices should not grant the NPA permission to use documents
obtained during the Shaik investigation.
Maharaj also accused the NPA of subterfuge, saying they knew they were
investigating him but chose not to make a direct application to access his
records.
Instead, he claims, the NPA used channels already open in the investigation
against Shaik to get information about him.
Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy dismissed the claims as baseless, arguing
they bumped into information on Maharaj while investigating Shaik and, as
investigators, they could not turn a blind eye.
The last batch of documents about this battle were filed with the Mutual
Legal Assistance offices three months ago, but the matter had not yet been
enrolled for arguments.
In terms of Swiss law, the office can decide to refuse or provide the
documents if the matter is delayed indefinitely.
A source said yesterday that Maharaj’s strategy is clear.
“He uses all available avenues to challenge the NPA, and hopes to get lucky
with whichever option that could help keep them at bay. Whilst within his
rights to ward them off, and his constitutional challenge appears sound, we
all know that a constitutional matter raised in the high court will take
time to be heard, appealed against, and then referred to the Supreme Court
of Appeal, reheard and, if lost, then ultimately taken to the overburdened
Constitutional Court.
“The entire process could keep the Scorpions at bay for about four years, as
was the case in the Tony Yengeni matter,” the source said.
Maharaj yesterday referred questions to his lawyer, Rudi Krause, despite
being told Krause was on leave and uncontactable.
City Press understands investigators are focusing on unravelling the
whereabouts of the R200 000 deposited in Milsek.
Maharaj and Zarina told investigators, according to the transcript, that
they did not know where the money came from or who used it. This is despite
Zarina and Maharaj’s two children being the only beneficiaries of the trust.
The trustees are Mac, Zarina and a person only identified as Hannington.
The investigation, City Press has determined, has also sucked in Briton Lord
Joel Joffe, who former Constitutional Court President Arthur Chaskalson
described in a biography of Bram Fischer as a man of “near saintly
qualities”.
Investigators want to establish payments received by the Maharajs from Joffe
or the JG & VL Joffe Charitable Trust between November 1985 and June 2000.
Joffe was at some point Maharaj’s special adviser.
Maharaj said during his interrogation that he consulted President Thabo
Mbeki on the R650 million driving licence tender
before awarding it to the Prodiba consortium, which
Shaik had a 33% interest in.
The transcript records the former commander of the ANC’s Operation Vula
claiming he has went to see the then deputy president (Mbeki) when his
department had to chose between Prodiba and ID Cord Tebe.
“In fact, I went to the deputy president on this matter because I said to
him there is going to be a war between the empowerment companies. Both are
claiming, in public, that they have the patronage of the ANC, Tebe and
Nkobi. So in my discussion with the deputy president he says ‘what do you
think should be done?’,” Maharaj tells investigators, but does not say what
Mbeki advised him to do.
Another massive cock-up by the NPA.
Another unfinished corruption investigation.
Another skermunkel in the Union Buildings.