The Durban High Court heard on Tuesday that the creation of a non-distributable reserve and the rights of three loan accounts in the books of Nkobi Holdings went beyond the accounting knowledge of fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik.
”It clearly relied on the auditors and his accountant to produce a set of accurate financials, and that is what he thought he eventually signed,” defence advocate Francois van Zyl said.
Discussing the charge of fraud against Shaik, Van Zyl said the state failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Shaik had signed the 1999 annual financial statement for Kobifin, one of the subsidiaries of Nkobi Holdings, with the intention of defrauding anyone.
Van Zyl said Shaik did not make any misrepresentation to a bank, the South African Revenue Service or shareholders through his financial statements.
Shaik also did not make any misrepresentation to any Nkobi accounting staff by means of instructions by the auditors to pass the relevant journal entries, as alleged.
Van Zyl called on the court to find Shaik not guilty on the charge of fraud as well the alternative to that charge — that he had contravened a section of the Income Tax Act, which relates to evasion.
”The only result of the write-off is that accounting evidence of the loan had been written off,” Van Zyl said.
Van Zyl is expected to deal later with count three of the corruption charges, which involves the alleged soliciting of a bribe for Deputy President Jacob Zuma. — Sapa