If Tony Yengeni goes down for corruption, it will be because he panicked.
Former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni and his corruption co-accused, Michael Woerfel, desperately tried to create a false paper trail to hide the massive discount Yengeni got from Woerfel on his luxury Mercedes 4×4, new court papers allege.
Yengeni and Woerfel return to the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria on May 30. Details of the state’s case have been disclosed in court papers.
These show there is no witness who will testify that Yengeni offered his influence as chairperson of Parliament’s joint standing committee on defence to prod the arms-acquisition process in favour of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa), which Woerfel headed.
Instead, the state will rely on the inference that corruption is the only reasonable explanation for the actions of both accused. Absolutely crucial to that inference is the state’s claim that Yengeni and Woerfel tried to create a false paper trail to show that Yengeni had paid a fair price for his by-now notorious Mercedes ML320 4×4.
The state alleges that Woerfel and Dasa sold Yengeni the luxury car in October 1998 for R182 563. The vehicle was registered in Yengeni’s name on October 22. Yengeni applied for and received finance for that amount.
The retail price, meanwhile, was R349 950. Dasa paid DaimlerChrysler, its sister company that manufactures the Mercedes brand, R307 458 for the vehicle. That difference was the normal internal discount between the two sister companies. The state says that the DaimlerChrysler internal discount scheme was not intended for such a use and the chairman of DaimlerChrysler South Africa would not have supported the transaction if he had known about it.
But still, so far so good. As the court papers make clear, there were other senior officials who benefited to a greater or lesser extent from this cosy discount scheme. They included Defence Force chief Siphiwe Nyanda, former Armscor boss Llew Swan, arms deal negotiator Vannan Pillay and Yengeni’s wife, Lumka – but none of them has faced criminal charges.
However, Yengeni’s new wheels attracted attention around Parliament and by the beginning of 1999 there were already whispers in the corridors about the arms deal. Yengeni, if the prosecution charges are true, must have started to sweat.
The state claims that Yengeni and Woerfel made their move in May 1999. The charge sheet states that at that time an agreement of sale between Yengeni and Woerfel was drafted and falsely backdated to October 15 1998. The sales schedule stated that the vehicle was damaged in transport and the sale price was indicated as R230 052 – some R50 000 above what Yengeni actually forked out – with payment due on May 1, 1999.
The state claims the vehicle was, in fact, not damaged at any stage before delivery in October 1998 and that the usual warranty was in place.
On May 14 an invoice was issued by Woerfel to Yengeni for R230 052, which allegedly falsely gave a description of the car as a used vehicle, which had transport damage. This information was also filed with DaimlerChrysler.
On May 17 Woerfel paid R50 000 in cash to the company bookkeeper with the receipt reflecting, falsely it is alleged, that it was a deposit paid by Yengeni. This alleged misrepresentation was made to Helga Heroldt, the company bookkeeper, who is likely to be a key witness.
According to a schedule of Woerfel’s expenses, attached by the state, Woerfel claimed R18 for a copy of the registration document for Yengeni’s vehicle on the October 22 1998 and then on November 30 submitted an invoice and memorandum for the R307 458 paid over to Daimler-Chrysler. On December 7 1998 a further expense of R714,90 was noted for Yengeni’s vehicle. Woerfel even forked out R30 on two occasions for petrol for Yengeni in October and November that year.
All in all Woerfel’s expenses schedule suggests that Woerfel met with Yengeni at least 10 times between July 1996 and June 1999 and that Dasa spent about R150 000 entertaining Yengeni, his wife and his secretary.
That included a trip to an airshow in Chile, on which Yengeni was accompanied by his secretary, Rene Lawrence-Adams, rather than his wife.
Some meetings with and gifts to Yengeni were allocated to expenses under the rubric AT2000. The AT2000 was the jet fighter that Dasa was trying to sell South Africa as part of the arms package deal.
Yengeni’s attorney, Alan Jeftha, this week commented: “The matter is sub judice … I don’t think in these circumstances I can give you any further information … We are preparing his defence.”
Jeftha declined to say how Yengeni would plead to the charges.
Fritz Keller, Woerfel’s attorney, said he did not want to disclose the basis of his client’s defence until the state had put its case. But he indicated they were considering launching a challenge to elements of the charge sheet.