Former Transnet chief financial officer Anoj Singh. (Photo by Papi Morake/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
Corruption accused and former Eskom executive Anoj Singh was himself allegedly defrauded of R13.9 million by medical doctor Mahendren Munsamay, with the proceeds of the apparent crime being paid to a former senior National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) official.
Knorx Molelle — the former head of the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) who left under a mismanagement cloud last year following the NPA’s claims that he wasted millions of rand in frivolous litigation — allegedly received R2 million from Munsamy in 2018 after the latter “defrauded” Singh the same year.
The latest theft allegations against Munsamy, who is also facing separate charges for allegedly swindling Sasol and First National Bank out of R420 million, were unveiled by state advocate Richard Chabalala in opposing bail for the medical doctor in a separate R7 million fraud case.
Besides the R420 million case against Munsamy, which is sitting in the Johannesburg high court, he is also facing charges relating to theft, money laundering, possession or use of proceeds of unlawful activities and assisting another person to benefit from proceeds of unlawful activities.
These charges are before the Johannesburg specialised commercial crimes court, sitting in Palm Ridge. Munsamy, accused of stealing R7 million from businessman Ravesh Moodley in what the state claims was a bogus venture to purchase 700 000 litres of fuel, is applying for bail.
On 2 March and 6 March, Chabalala presented an affidavit deposed by Singh, wherein the former Eskom and Transnet executive detailed how Munsamy “misrepresented” that R12 million was needed to take a company, Sabila Sea and Air, out of liquidation and to be used to import fuel from Mozambique into South Africa.
Singh’s affidavit was part of Chabalala’s opposition to the fresh bail application launched by Munsamy, who has been in custody since his arrest in January last year.
According to Singh, Munsamy stated that the South African Revenue Service (Sars) was Sabila’s main creditor, and that the company had a “deferment account” with the revenue agency which would have allowed import duties to be paid “within 30 days and not immediately”.
“According to Munsamy, Sars had agreed with the business rescue practitioner [Thomas Samons] to settle what was owed to Sars with an upfront payment of R5 million, with the balance owing to be settled in equal monthly instalments over a period of 24 months,” Singh said.
“This was a fraudulent misrepresentation,” he said, adding that Samons had “confirmed that there was no deal made”. Samons did not answer questions sent by Mail & Guardian.
Singh stated further that Munsamy claimed R2.5 million had to be paid into a trust account by Vathers Attorneys in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, to settle the R5 million after Munsamy had already paid his half, and that Singh would become a 33% shareholder of Sabila and receive profits from the expected fuel trade.
Singh added that Udesh Vather, director of Vathers Attorneys, “confirmed that he never received any money from Munsamy to be held in trust for onward payment to Sars”.
Vather told M&G this week that he was “aware of a case” opened by Singh against Munsamy.
In January, the Johannesburg high court heard that Vather would be Munsamy’s lawyer when his R420 million FNB and Sasol fraud trial begins on Monday, 13 March. However, this week Vather said as of Tuesday, he was not representing Munsamy because he had “not been instructed in that regard”.
“I was not aware of any of the business dealings between Munsamy and Anoj [Singh]. I did not receive any monies pertaining to any of their business dealings. More specifically, I did not receive a payment of R2.5 million from Munsamy,” Vather said.
In his affidavit, Singh alleged that he paid another R6 million in August 2018, in addition to the R2.5 million paid in the same month to supposedly get Sabila out of business rescue, as an investment, saying he “expected there to be trading and for there to be profits”.
“No profits were paid to me because no trading was done. The money was simply misappropriated by Munsamy and his people,” Singh claimed, saying he had given Munsamy R8.5 million by August 2018.
He added that he invested a further R5.4 million between September and October 2018. M&G has seen the proof of payments that were attached to Singh’s affidavit of deposits made to an Absa bank account nominated by Munsamy.
“After a few months, [Munsamy] just became unavailable to take my calls. That was when I realised that I had been defrauded,” Singh said, adding that his loss of R13.9 million was part of Munsamy’s “modus operandi” in scamming people.
“[Munsamy] then told me that he paid an amount of R2 million of my money to advocate Knorx Molelle to ‘assist’ him. Munsamy did not elaborate what that meant. What is not in doubt is that Molelle benefitted R2 million from the money stolen from me.”
M&G has established that Molelle is now the head of the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences, an elite graft-busting unit in Lesotho. Molelle did not respond to questions M&G sent to him.
Testifying under cross examination on 2 March and 6 March, Munsamy rejected claims that he defrauded Singh. Munsamy said he spoke with business rescue practitioner Samons after being made aware of Singh’s affidavit, and that Samons would depose an affidavit on Munsamy’s behalf rejecting Singh’s claims.
“You are being misled by Singh; there’s a subterfuge here. Don’t buy into the confirmation bias [that I’m a criminal]. The mere allegations being made here does not equal me having to stand trial,” Munsamy testified.
“As it stands, [Singh’s] matter is unenrolled, and I’m cooperating with you to get the truth, which you don’t have.”
Singh resigned as Eskom’s chief financial officer in January 2018 and was arrested in August last year for alleged corruption pertaining to Transnet’s R30 billion 2015 locomotives procurement programme when he was the logistics company’s executive.
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Munsamy, under cross examination, testified that Singh “came looking for me” after the latter resigned from Eskom in January 2018.
“[Singh] told me that Gas 2 Liquids had tremendous potential and we should take Gas 2 Liquids out of liquidation,” Munsamy emphasised.
Gas 2 Liquids is Munsamy’s liquidated company, which allegedly partook in R420 million fraud against FNB by securing “fraudulent guarantees” from the bank to purchase fuel from Sasol, which apparently did not receive payment for the sale.
Munsamy said Singh “voluntarily gave me his money”, adding that Singh said he would “use [his] influence” to resuscitate Gas 2 Liquids.
On the R2 million allegedly given to Molelle, Munsamy said he rejected those assertions, but acknowledged that he and Molelle were friends.
“We’re family friends and social friends. We were friends before he was given the [AFU head] appointment and we were friends after,” Munsamy testified.
Munsamy returns to the Johannesburg high court on Monday for his FNB and Sasol fraud pre-trial hearing, and to the commercial crimes court on Tuesday for the continuation of his bail application in the R7 million fraud matter.
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