The Cape High Court is to rule on Tuesday on an application by one of the four accused in the LeisureNet trial for his hearing to be separated from the others.
The application by Hans Moser was made on Monday morning as the trial, which has been set down for six weeks, got under way before acting Judge Dirk Uijs.
In the dock with Moser are LeisureNet’s former joint chief executives, Peter Gardener and Rodney Mitchell, who face charges of fraud, money laundering, income-tax evasion and contraventions of the Companies Act.
Another co-accused is Mitchell’s wife, Suzanne, who also faces only a money- laundering charge.
Moser’s advocate Craig Webster told the court his client would be ”significantly prejudiced” if he was not granted a separation, as he would have to sit for months listening to evidence, most of which would be irrelevant to the single charge against him.
Moser’s trial could be ”done in 10 days”, he said.
Moser would also in effect have to conduct a defence against the charges that only his co-accused face, otherwise his credibility could be challenged when he entered the witness box.
In addition, keeping him as a co-accused in the trial would prejudice Gardener and the Mitchells, as they would not be able to call him as a witness.
However, Scorpions prosecutor Bruce Morrison argued that all but one of his witnesses would be testifying about transactions in which both Moser and the others were involved.
The fact that Moser had not been charged on some of the other deals was ”maybe a concession on our part”, he told the court.
Allowing him a separate trial would prejudice the state, as all its witnesses would probably have to testify all over again in his hearing.
Advocate Francois van Zyl, for the Mitchells and Gardener, supported Moser’s application.
There was no guarantee Moser would enter the witness box in this trial, and his evidence could be very important, if not crucial, for his clients.
Uijs, who has yet to make a ruling on the application, said it appeared it might be in Van Zyl’s clients’ interests that Moser stay in the dock with them.
”Aren’t we looking at a closely interwoven set of corporate acts and facts?” he asked.
The four were allegedly party to elaborate schemes to defraud LeisureNet through deals related to the purchase of two companies, Jersey-registered Dalmore and the South African-registered Keystone Architects.
The state claims Gardener bought a R7-million Hermanus property with his share of the unlawfully acquired money from the Dalmore deal.
LeisureNet, which operated the Health and Racquet Club, was liquidated in 2000 with liabilities of more than R1-billion.
Gardener entered into a R2,9-million plea bargain with the Scorpions last year in which he admitted to 14 counts of value-added tax fraud and one of insider trading. — Sapa