Bosses at State-Run Diamond Company Face Fraud Probe
May 01, 22
(IDEX Online) - A judicial inquiry into systemic political corruption at Alexkor, South Africa's state-owned diamond company, has issued a long list of recommendations to pursue the alleged perpetrators.
It focuses on alleged links between Alexkor and members of the super-wealthy Gupta family, who were close to former president Jacob Zuma, who now live in Dubai, and who have been described by the US Treasury as "members of a significant corruption network".
One of the central allegations was that Gupta entities benefited from "state capture" at Alexkor - when private interests significantly influence a state's decision-making processes to their own advantage.
A report released on Friday by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture details how former minister of public enterprises Malusi Gigaba appointed a new Alexkor board with links to the Gupta family.
The new board subsequently appointed Scarlet Sky Investments 60 (SSI) to market and sell all its diamonds - worth $127m in total - even though it had no experience and no license to operate.
The inquiry heard evidence that the evaluators weren't fully qualified and that diamonds were sold at below market value.
The Commission is now calling on law enforcement agencies to investigate whether the members of the tender committee perpetrated fraud by misrepresenting SSI's compliance with the tender requirements, according to the Fin24 business and finance news website.
Alexkor which runs land and marine mining operations around Alexander Bay (pictured), on the country's West Coast, had been trading recklessly and was technically insolvent, according to evidence given earlier to a parliamentary committee.