Richard Mdluli. Picture: Bongiwe Gumede/Foto24 Two Crime Intelligence top cops with links to controversial former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli have been charged with defrauding the Secret Service Account of R1.2 million.
Major-General Solly Lazarus, chief financial officer of the Secret Service Account, and Colonel Heine Barnard, were charged with theft, fraud and two counts of corruption each in the Lyttleton Police Station in Centurion this morning.
They appeared in the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court and were each released on R10 000 bail. While state prosecutor Advocate Gerrie Nel said the charges were not linked to Mdluli, the charges are linked to the same secret account that has caused a stir within crime intelligence circles and was allegedly used by Mdluli to buy cars for his relatives.
Lazarus and Barnard are Mdluli’s confidants. Similar charges of plundering the Secret Service Account were mysteriously withdrawn by the National Prosecuting Authority earlier this year. According to the charge sheet, Lazarus and Barnard personally benefited to tune of R1.14 million through a car dealership in Centurion which they allegedly used to buy luxury cars and goods for themselves.
The SAPS created a front company called Universal Technical Enterprises which was operated to purchase covert vehicles to be used in undercover projects and investigations. UTE – a police front company – was established in 1988 by the security branch and used by its bomb-making unit to buy equipment to target anti-apartheid activists.
Before the charges against Mdluli were withdrawn the Hawks had uncovered that crime intelligence allegedly used UTE as a front to buy luxury vehicles for Mdluli and his family to cover their debts and pay for private flights. According to the charge sheet, the front company appointed Atlantis Motors as a service provider for the purposes of buying cars by crime intelligence. Lazarus allegedly approved all car purchases from Atlantis.
The Hawks allege that Lazarus struck an agreement with Jan Venter, from Atlantis, where the latter would create a special account where money would be deposited from legal transactions to buy crime intelligence vehicles and it is alleged that the money was “exclusively” used by Lazarus. It is alleged that Lazarus and Barnard used this special account to buy cars and then sell them while they also bought cars for their relatives.
It is also alleged that crime intelligence ended up paying more for the cars to be used by the unit. They have been charged with contravening Section 4 (1) and Sections 10 (a) of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act. They have been accused of stealing R1.14 million from the Secret Service Account through Atlantis between 2006 and last year.
“During the period 2006 to December 2011 near Pretoria … the accused wrongfully, unlawfully, directly or indirectly accepted or agreed or offered to accept gratification worth R1.144 086.23,” says the charge sheet. The Hawks allege that the two abused their position of authority, breached the trust and violated their legal duty. The charges carry sentences of between 15 and 25 years each. They were each released on bail of R10 000 and were given strict bail conditions including that they cannot contact staff at Atlantis, leave the country or intimidate witnesses. The case was postponed to February next year.
City Press - - - - -
COMMENTS BY SONNY - - - This is just 'small change' if you have to take a holistic view of ANC/SAPS CORRUPTION in SA.
Similar charges of plundering the Secret Service Account were mysteriously withdrawn by the National Prosecuting Authority earlier this year.
Another "Baby Arms Deal" PROSECUTION? Or will charged be withdrawn before trial?
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Police still using apartheid front company
The front company allegedly used by crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli and other agents to plunder a secret “slush fund” was started by the apartheid-era police.
Universal Technical Enterprises (UTE) – a police front company – was established in 1988 by the security branch and used by its bomb-making unit to buy equipment to blow up anti-apartheid activists.
A Hawks investigation has uncovered that crime intelligence used UTE as a front to buy luxury vehicles for Mdluli and his family, cover their debts and pay for private flights.
UTE was set up by former security policemen and co-owned by, among, others a notorious apartheid bomb-planter and killer until 2004.
The existence and abuse of UTE and other crime intelligence front companies are exposed in affidavits made by two top Hawks investigators and in a top-secret report to acting police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
The directors of UTE are chief financial officer of crime intelligence Solly Lazarus and former crime intelligence boss Mulangi Mphego, who resigned from the police but is still listed as a director.
Company records show that UTE was set up in May 1988 and that its original directors were Wybrand du Toit, Christoffel Breytenbach and Adam Helberg.
City Press was told this week that UTE was among a host of former security branch front companies and was utilised by the unit’s technical division to buy spy devices and equipment to assemble explosives.
Du Toit was a brigadier in the security branch and was widely known as Wal du Toit.
He was the head of the technical division of the security police and was in charge of manufacturing bombs and other explosive devices that were used to blow up activists.
Du Toit is a convicted murderer who appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for his complicity in killing 13 activists.
In June 1996, Du Toit was convicted of murder for blowing up four policemen – known as the Motherwell Four – with a car bomb in the Eastern Cape in December 1989.
The security police were concerned that the policemen were leaking information to the ANC but didn’t have enough evidence to charge them.
Du Toit had to manufacture the car bomb. He was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment but received amnesty.
Du Toit was also involved in the February 1991 murder of Johannesburg lawyer Bheki Mlangeni when he received a Walkman cassette player with a tape in the post.
The security police wanted to kill former Vlakplaas commander Dirk Coetzee, who was in exile with the ANC.
Du Toit and his men built explosives into the earphones of a Walkman and sent it to Coetzee. But it landed up with Mlangeni, who switched on the recorder and was instantly killed.
Du Toit was also a mastermind behind the bombing of the ANC headquarters in London in 1982 and Khanya House, the Pretoria headquarters of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference, in 1988.
A former security policeman told City Press the technical division provided the security police with phone-tapping and tracking equipment, listening devices and whatever gadgets they needed to fight their secret war against the ANC.
UTE was set up to enable the unit to purchase any equipment they needed.
Although Du Toit was suspended from the police in 1996, his resignation as a director of UTE was recorded only in April 2004.
That was also the date on which Lazarus and Mphego became directors.
Lazarus is accused of being instrumental in the looting of the secret fund and was suspended from the police with Mdluli until their controversial reinstatement last month.
Universal Technical Enterprises (UTE) – a police front company – was established in 1988 by the security branch and used by its bomb-making unit to buy equipment to blow up anti-apartheid activists.
ReplyDeleteThey did a bad job !
Look at all the problems we are having today !
Government Crimes, Corruption and fraud has never been so high and it's getting worse by the day.
Criminals RULE !