INVESTIGATING DIRECTORATE LODGES FORFEITURE APPLICATION AGAINST GUPTA OWNED OPTIMUM MINE
09 DECEMBER 2021
Five years after the erstwhile Public Protector, Adv Thuli Madonsela released her State of Capture Report detailing how Tegeta Resources, a company owned and controlled by members of the Gupta family, acquired Optimum Coal Holdings from Glencore for R2.1 billion, the Investigating Directorate yesterday filed two related court applications to recover the stolen funds and today served the respondents the application. The High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, Johannesburg will hear the preservation application on 08 March 2022.
In the first application, the ID seeks to preserve all of Tegeta’s shares in Optimum Coal Mine (OCM) , all of Tegeta’s shares in Optimum Coal Terminal and the business of OCM. It is the ID’s case that all of these assets were acquired with the proceeds of crimes perpetrated against South African SOEs, including Transnet and Eskom.
A month prior to Tegeta furnishing the purchase price, the company did not have the R2.1 billion to purchase the mine. However, shortly thereafter funds from Gupta controlled entities Oakbay Investments, Albatime, Centaur mining amongst others were transferred into Tegeta’s account as loans. The ID seeks to persuade the court that officials employed by Eskom fraudulently and post-haste caused Eskom to make a prepayment of over R659 million to Tegeta on 13 April 2016. This pre-payment was fraudulently presented as necessary to ensure the supply of coal to Arnot power station when its true purpose was to avail Tegeta of the purchase price for Optimum.
A further R104,5 million paid over to Tegeta as loans from Albatime and Trillian can be traced to funds stolen from the Transnet Second Defined Benefit Fund (TSDBF) by Regiments Fund Managers (Pty) Ltd on 4 December 2015, and an amount of R93,4 million tainted by fraud and corruption paid on 4 December 2015 by Transnet to Trillian Asset Management ostensibly as fees arising from the R12bn ‘Club Loan’.