Exonerated businessman Tuwani Matthews Mulaudzi has bounced back in business after his Luvhomba Group signed a multibillion-rand arms deal with a Chinese company.
The deal is two fold; one being a mining deal in terms of which the Chinese will contribute funding, infrastructure and development as partners. The other is an arms deal in which his company will procure arms (air, land and sea) to supply the continent and the globe.
The arms deal is with the Zhejiang Free Trade Zone National Lead Import and Export Co.Ltd, a subsidiary of the Chinese $135.3 Billion Poly Group.
Mulaudzi and the Chinese company signed a memorandum of understanding in June. “The development is for the various mines where we own prospecting rights, mining permits and mining rights,” he said.
He added that the lifespan of the proposed mines was over 30 years with trillions of reserves. The rights range from coal, manganese, iron ore, chrome, copper, uranium and suchlike.
“This deal is a lifeline and recovery route after being thrown in the lion's den for over 10 years, by being wrongfully accused.
The businessman has been on a mission to recoup millions which he lost when he was charged with fraud, theft, money laundering and racketeering relating to a R48 million investment gone wrong with Old Mutual.
The Star previously reported that Mulaudzi’s troubles with the insurance giant started in 2014 when, according to media reports, after a dispute with Old Mutual over the R48 million he was accused of having ceded to Nedbank.
It was said that he later demanded that it be paid to him when it matured following a R33 million Investment Frontiers policy with Fairbairn Capital, underwritten by Old Mutual.
According to court papers filed by the Assets Forfeiture Unit (AFU), Mulaudzi had ceded the policy to Nedbank in return for R37.6m and when he tried to buy back the policy from Nedbank in 2012, the bank refused. Mulaudzi then used the same policy to get an overdraft facility at Absa bank, which elicited charges of fraud that were later dismissed by the courts.
Earlier this year, Mulaudzi revealed that not all his assets and more than R105m cash had been returned to him following his acquittal by the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court which found him not guilty of defrauding Old Mutual of R48m.
The acquittal came more than seven years after he was charged. He is now suing the police department.
Mulaudzi said the seven-year legal battle with the insurer had bankrupted him.
“I must say it hasn’t been an easy path. It’s still not. Many business deals worth billions collapsed due to reputational damage caused by this malicious prosecution and bad publicity. It’s a rocky path, and one is up against evil. There is some form of relief, though, I must say, albeit it will take time to undo the damage done.
“As I always say, no amount of money will buy the reputational damage, but as the old adage goes, you can't keep a good man down,” said Mulaudzi.
Mulaudzi’s troubles did not end there. He had claimed to The Star that deputy minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Bernice Swarts, had allegedly scammed him of more than R500 000 which she eventually finally paid.
She allegedly swindled him as a ploy that it was a donation.
Mulaudzi had accused Swarts of tricking and defrauding him into paying R500 000 into her personal bank account purported to be going into the governing ANC’s coffers as a donation for their election campaign back in 2014.
The Star