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After obtaining a wide-ranging court order freezing over R1bn worth of assets of the current and former directors of the Gupta-linked Regiments group of companies last week, the National Prosecuting Authority says it will now proceed to analyse the group's servers, which were previously seized.
Last week the Johannesburg High Court granted the prosecuting authority an interim restraint order against the directors of the Regiments Group of companies, including Eric Wood, and the companies themselves. The court authorised a curator bonis - or court-appointed legal representative - to take control of the assets of the directors and the companies, including all property in SA and abroad, shares and bank accounts.
Following the granting of the interim restraint order, the NPA says it is continuing its probe of Regiments by analysing company servers previously confiscated in a search and seizure operation. According to NPA spokesperson Bulelwa Makeke, these servers are currently at the commission of inquiry into state capture and can now be analysed for evidence.
"Seizing the ill-gotten gains of those responsible for the looting of the state coffers is an important part of the NPA strategy to address the rampant corruption in this country," she said.
According to the NPA, the court order stemmed from an investigation authorised by the head of the NPA's investigating directorate, Advocate Hermoine Cronje, into alleged fraud and corruption in the awarding of contracts and tenders in a controversial multi-billion rand project to acquire over 1000 new locomotives by state-owned freight rail and port group Transnet.
Allegations of fraud and backroom dealings which lead to massive cost overruns were interrogated by the judicial commission pf inquiry into state capture in May, June and July. The locomotives contacts also form part of the disciplinary hearing of Transnet's former CFO Anoj Singh being conducted by the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Last week, a Transnet pension fund was paid a settlement amount of approximately R530m from Regiments, Fin24 previously reported.
