Three secret microphones and a hidden camera were discovered in Fidentia’s Cape Town boardroom in a sweep for electronic bugs after curators took over the business, the city’s magistrate’s court heard on Friday.
This emerged during a bail application by Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown and fellow director and accountant Graham Maddock, who face R200-million fraud and theft charges.
Magistrate Eric Louw is to rule on the application on Monday, which means Brown and Maddock, who were arrested on March 6, will spend another weekend in Goodwood prison.
Scorpions lead investigator in the case Geoffrey Edwards told the court that the boardroom in which bugging equipment was found was used last year by a team from the Financial Services Board (FSB) when it conducted its own investigation into Fidentia.
He rejected a suggestion by advocate Klaus von Lieres und Wilkau that the boardroom had just the normal video conferencing equipment installed in all 22 Fidentia boardrooms throughout the country.
He acknowledged that he never saw the equipment himself, and that he was testifying only on what he had heard.
Von Lieres read out parts of a letter from Fidentia’s lawyers to the FSB in August last year, in which they suggested that the FSB staff, who were suspicious at that stage that they were being monitored, had mistaken a DVD player in the boardroom for surveillance equipment, and were ”overzealous” in assuming they were being monitored.
Far from being surreptitious, the matter had been dealt with quite openly, Von Lieres said.
”I think we’re talking about two different things,” Edwards said.
In re-examination, prosecutor Bruce Morrison presented Edwards a report from a Pretoria-based firm, Computer Security and Forensic Solutions (CSFS), which said that during a search on February 6 this year, it found a covert camera as well as three covert microphones in the boardroom.
The output leads from the mikes led into a cupboard in the next room.
”The hidden camera and microphones were so covertly hidden that at no stage was any employee suppose[d] to observe or f[i]nd it,” the report said.
”A metal screw was screwed into the [cupboard] door from underneath so that nobody could open it easily after unlocking the cupboard.
”The conclusion we make is that this covert equipment installed must have been done with the assistance of an employee within the company.”
The camera, which it is understood was about a centimetre across, was linked to the DVD recorder, the report said.
The equipment was removed and handed to one of the curators, George Papadakis.
Asked by Morrison whether this appeared to have been standard equipment, Edwards replied: ”Definitely not.”
Among the reasons Morrison is opposing bail is that he maintains Brown poses a threat to potential witnesses and is likely to interfere with the Scorpions investigation.
Von Lieres also sought to challenge a statement by Edwards that Brown had two passports, and his suggestion that Brown was a flight risk.
Von Lieres said Brown had travelled overseas about 10 times since the FSB investigation began, giving him that many opportunities to stay out of the country.
He said Brown’s passport was stolen in mid-2006, a theft that had been reported to the Milnerton police station in Brown’s neighbourhood.
He was then issued with temporary travel documents.
However, the quietly spoken Edwards said Brown’s travel agent had told him Brown possessed two passports, and used them alternately.
”The information that I have does not correspond with what you are saying,” he told Von Lieres.
Brown and Maddock are charged with misappropriating R200,3-million in funds belonging to the Transport Education and Training Authority.
The state alleges the money was put into a trust account controlled by Maddock and used to buy cars, a home on Milnerton’s Sunset Beach for Brown and pay Fidentia salaries.
They also face charges related to the Living Hands trust and over a billion rands meant to fund payments to mineworkers’ widows and orphans.
The Scorpions expect to make more arrests in the case.
According to the FSB, just over R400-million in investors funds is unaccounted for. — Sapa