stealing R7m
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
Norman Knight, one of the doyens of South Africa’s pharmaceutical industry, has been sentenced to five years in prison for stealing more than R7-million while working for his former employer, the Premier Group.
Knight, who has instructed his Mpumalanga legal firm to appeal against the judgement, has been convicted by the Johannesburg High Court on five charges of corruption, fraud and contravention of the Companies Act.
According to the prosecution, which compiled a 50-page charge sheet, Knight stole millions of rands while he was chief executive officer of the United Pharmaceutical Distributors, which was owned by the Premier Group.
The prosecution says Knight used millions of rands from United Pharmaceutical Distributors coffers to secretly buy himself a stake in the company.
Knight formerly headed a pharmaceutical company, Medical Cash & Carry, that was bought by Premier in 1991. One of Knight’s senior directors at Medical Cash & Carry was acquitted of dealing in stolen drugs, but Knight himself was initially not prosecuted.
But after Premier took over the company, it probed the affairs of the company further in a forensic audit, and opened a private prosecution against Knight, in which he was accused of stealing from the company.
According to the prosecution Knight paid off R2-million of Premier’s money to alleged Mafia boss Vito Palazzolo – money paid as part of a complex deal in terms of which Premier was to buy out Palazzolo’s mineral water plant and a Plettenberg Bay stud farm.
The prosecution has said that Palazzolo arranged the deal after discussing with Knight and others the possibility of giving them some financial advice.
Knight was also convicted and sentenced to five years without a suspended sentence for stealing more than R4-million from the United Pharmaceutical Distributors’ coffers and falsely creating warehouse equipment with the value of R2-million.
Knight’s lawyers, Ackerman Ferreira Attorneys, say their client has instructed them to lodge an appeal against the judgement. The firm’s Chris Ferreira says his team has been granted leave to appeal against three charges against Knight and is in the process of filing a notice to appeal the rest of the charges.