Mungo Soggot
EDWARD Dutton, the flamboyant Johannesburg businessman who fled his R205-million forex fraud trial to Australia three years ago, has been released from jail after a Sydney court ruled he should not be extradited to South Africa.
South African officials working on the case are baffled by the outcome of the hearing which last Friday ended Dutton’s 13-month stint in a maximum security prison.
But they are not giving up pursuit of the former Interboard managing director whose two year trial in Johannesburg had cost the state
R8,4-million by the time he skipped bail on the pretext of a dentist’s appointment in February 1994. The case against him hinged on allegations of an ambitious “roundtripping” scheme.
One official at the Office for Serious Economic Offenses (OSEO) in Pretoria said the South African legal team – from OSEO, the Reserve Bank and the Johannesburg attorney general’s office – would now prepare new legal argument for Dutton’s extradition in light of the Sydney magistrate’s ruling.
Dutton, who changed his name to Michael Addison when he arrived in Australia, won the day with the help of a law in the state of New South Wales which makes it harder to admit evidence obtained in another country, according to OSEO.
The official said the outcome was particularly disappointing because Australian lawyers briefed by the South Africans had said their entire case was admissable.
Two weeks before Dutton’s Sydney hearing began his counsel, William Barber of the Sydney Bar, flew to South Africa to visit Justice Minister Dullah Omar and Truth and Reconciliation Commission representatives to “put Dutton’s side of the story”.
Dutton claimed his competitors as well as key officials in the former government had wanted him out of the picture and had framed the charges against him.
Barber said Dutton had been very successful as head of hardboard business Interboard and had angered apartheid officials with his avant garde policy of not discriminating against blacks.
At one stage during his marathon Johannesburg trial Dutton said he was a Selous Scout – a claim dismissed by representatives in South Africa of the notorious Rhodesian squad.
Meanwhile, another famous South African fugitive from fraud charges has had a less successful innings in the English courts.
Oliver Hill, who lost his extradition hearing two months ago, on November 22 lost a district court bail application.
He claimed his continued incarceration at London’s Brixton Prison was giving his wife, Lynne, at least two “panic attacks” a day. Hill added that the “oppressive regime” in South Africa would not give him a fair trial.
But Judges Staughton and Tucker rejected the bail application, saying Hill faced serious charges and had made clear his unwillingness to return home to face trial.
They ordered Hill, who is known for his litigious bent, pay the costs of the hearing. According to Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service, Hill’s British legal bill so far is about R3-million.
Hill is alleged to have pioneered an ingenious “roundtripping” money making scheme that cashed in on South Africa’s dual currency system with the help of forged Eskom bonds.