Justice Minister Penuell Maduna has asked the Scorpions to probe the demise of the Saambou banking group last year on the basis of an independent report implicating executives in ”suspicious” transactions, insider-trading and mismanagement, Business Day reported on Friday.
The report alleges that illegal actions hastened the collapse of Saambou — then South Africa’s seventh largest bank — that left hundreds of thousands of Saambou customers in the lurch and a significant number of its 2400 staff out of work.
The newspaper said it had a copy of the report, compiled by business advisory firm KPMG and containing what Business Day describes as startling allegations against top bank directors.
The report was completed by KPMG by July 2002, five months after Saambou was placed into curatorship.
The SA Reserve Bank met Saambou curator John Louw and investigators at the end of July to discuss the document but Louw decided to keep its contents secret. Louw has since sold off different assets of Saambou to other banks in the market, the newspaper said.
Maduna confirmed to Business Day that he had handed the document to the Directorate of Special Investigations, commonly known as the Scorpions, for further investigation.
Business Day said it was believed that SA Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni had also seen the report.
The report alleges that millions of rands were moved in ”highly suspicious and possibly illegal transactions” by Saambou, that insider trading was committed between August and September 2001 — before Saambou issued a profit warning — and that there is evidence of mismanagement by top executives who are named in the report.
The report also accuses the managing director of a Saambou subsidiary of involvement in exchange control infringements and money-laundering, thus exposing Saambou to liability under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
The Financial Services Board, which has been investigating insider trading in Saambou shares, said it had also forwarded its information to the Director of Public Prosecutions for possible prosecutions. – Sapa