The state is leaving nothing to chance as they embark on a drive to recover the billions lost due to state capture.
Some of the lost assets include a R54m private jet, a R12m mansion and a R17m office park.
They are part of assets that belong to beneficiaries who were allegedly involved in state capture during the administration of former President Jacob Zuma.
The assets are now in the hands of curators appointed by the ID and, if their owners are found guilty, they will be permanently forfeited to the state.
This year, the ID preserved assets worth about half — or R1.5bn — of the total they now have under restraint. ID spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka said of the R3.07bn under restraint, R1.4bn is from cases involving Eskom, R98m involves the Gupta family and an associate, R46m is linked to former ANC MP Vincent Smith and R2.3m comes from a case involving a senior police general.
All those facing charges have pleaded not guilty or indicated they intend to do so.
A few of the Gupta family’s belongings and those of their acolytes are among the assets in the ID’s hands, including the Guptas’ private jet.
The Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign has been photographed at airports around the world, including India’s Dehradun airport, the nearest to the family’s hometown of Saharanpur in northern India.
When property belonging to Gupta company Islandsite Investments was attached in June, the ID got its hands on a R17m office park in Midrand; two houses in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, worth R7.5m and R2.8m respectively, a R7m property in Umhlanga Rocks, KwaZulu-Natal, and a R10.5m property in Constantia, Cape Town.
Also preserved this year was the R12m Morningside, Sandton, home of Gupta lieutenant Iqbal Sharma, whose wife, actress Tarina Patel, showed it off on lifestyle TV show Top Billing. Sharma was arrested in connection with a R25m contract his company, Nulane Investments, scored from the Free State provincial government, proceeds of which were allegedly siphoned off to the Guptas.
“Based on observations made during this home tour [on Top Billing], it appeared it contained movable assets worth about R500,000, including two [marble] carved elephant statues imported from India, two 14m-long Persian carpets imported from Kashmir in India, antique elephant brass door handles, antique royal lounge chairs imported from the Jaipur Palace in India, tapestries, antique furniture and artwork from an Indian artist known as Kafung,” ID financial investigator Philimon Rankuoatsana said in an affidavit.
Former ANC MP Smith, who is charged with corruption alongside Angelo Agrizzi, the former COO of Bosasa, had R46m belonging to his company, Euro Blitz 48, and his family trust, preserved in February.
Smith is alleged to have received R800,000 in bribes from Bosasa while chair of the parliamentary committee that oversaw the department of corrections, which handed Bosasa R1bn-plus in contracts.
South African Police Service technology management head Lt-Gen Adeline Shezi, her nephew and two of his companies, had R2.3m of their assets preserved this month as part of an investigation into corruption at the SAPS technology management division, the ID’s Seboka said.
The lion’s share of preservation orders this year were from Eskom-related contracts. In May, the high court in Pretoria granted an order restraining R1.4bn in assets belonging to former executives of the stateowned power utility and contractors at Tubular Construction Projects.
Eskom bosses, including senior capital contracts manager France Hlakudi and former group capital executive Abram Masango, had their houses in Mpumalanga attached. Maphoko Kgomoeswana, who allegedly operated his Babinatlou Business Services as a money-laundering operation for the Eskom executives, also had his home attached.
Tubular Construction Projects CEO Antonio Trindade and the company’s former executive adviser, Michael Lomas, were also served with a preservation order. Their spouses’ assets and their family trusts were also restrained.
Source: https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2021-12-19-the-state-capture-bling-now-in-the-hands-of-the-state/
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