The Nulane Investment fraud and money-laundering case involving the Gupta family associate and businessman Iqbal Sharma and others will resume at the Bloemfontein High Court on Monday.
The trial was deferred in 2022 after Sharma arrived late in court flagging flight issues with one of his co-accused, Dinesh Patel, who did not arrive at all.
The duo is accused with former Free State head of the department of rural development (FSDoRD) Peter Thabethe; former head of FSDoA (Free State department of agriculture) Limakatso Moorosi; former FSDoA chief financial officer Seipati Dhlamini; Sharma’s brother-in-law and a representative of Nulane Investment, and Islandsite director Ronica Ragavan.
The companies indicted include Nulane, which is owned by Sharma, and Islandsite Investment One Hundred and Eighty.
It is alleged that millions of rands were purportedly paid between 2011 and 2012 to Nulane Investment to conduct a feasibility study for the Free State’s Mohoma Mobung project in relation to the Estina Dairy Farm scam.
In the matter, the state alleges that at the time, Nulane Investment had no employees on its books, and instead subcontracted Deloitte to do the feasibility study and produce the report.
According to National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) investigating directorate (ID) spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka, Nulane was paid R24.9-million by the Free State government for the report compiled by Deloitte. However, Deloitte’s fee for the work done on behalf of Nulane was only R1.5-million.
“The case is based on allegations that R24.9-million was paid to Nulane Investment to conduct a feasibility study for the Free State province’s flagship Mohoma Mobung project on the basis that Nulane had unique skills to perform the work,” explained Seboka.
“The state alleged that Nulane Investment, however, had no employees on its books and in fact subcontracted Deloitte to produce the report for which Deloitte was paid R1.5-million. It’s alleged that the only change made to the Deloitte report was to identify Paras Diary as a suitable implementing partner for the development of a milk-processing plant in Vrede.”
In 2021, the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court turned down Sharma’s bail application, which was opposed by the ID due to his ties to foreign countries. The ID told the court at the time that Sharma was a flight risk.
The state seized Sharma’s assets, including his two Sandton houses worth R12-million and R1.3-million, respectively.
Gupta brothers’ extradition
The notorious brothers Rajesh and Atul Gupta, who are believed to be in custody in Dubai, will not be present in court to account for their involvement in the Nulane Investment matter as the NPA is yet to secure the extradition.
In June 2022, Rajesh and Atul were nabbed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on charges that included money-laundering.
At the time, the Department of Justice and Correctional Services said it was notified by law-enforcement authorities in the UAE that the fugitives had been arrested. It remains unclear why Ajay, one of the trio, is not behind bars.
The NPA also seeks to prosecute the Guptas for fraud and money-laundering in the infamous Estina Dairy Farm project, which was also part of the initiative.
However, the extradition negotiations with the UAE have stalled.
The Guptas escaped to Dubai after they were implicated in looting billions of rands in South Africa during former president Jacob Zuma’s reign. They were allegedly the kingpins of state capture and the Zondo Commission into Allegations of State Capture, headed by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, found them to have been central in the looting, mainly from state-owned enterprises.
Having fled the country, in September 2018 Atul approached the consul-general of South Africa in Dubai to apply for a passport. The application, according to media reports, was dismissed by the high court in Pretoria on Friday.
The court ruled that Atul “is a fugitive from justice and therefore does not qualify for a South African passport”.
“If he [Atul Gupta] indeed is not a fugitive from justice, why would he need legal advice whether he ought to come to this country for whatever reason? This is more telling for a person who owns property and has owned businesses in this country.
“All that he seems prepared to state is that he is a South African citizen resident in Dubai. Nothing further is disclosed. I am of the view that this was not an oversight on the applicant’s side but was deliberate,” reads the judgment in part.
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