Four ‘amigos’ and a shell company

Hamid Shabbir was the fourth “amigo”, a government official who kept affable contact with Uruguayan businessman Gaston Savoi as he sold millions of rands in equipment to state hospitals.

Shabbir and Savoi are among 11 co-accused in corruption charges in the Northern Cape, involving Savoi’s company Intaka.

The other three “amigos” were Savoi of Tokai, and two KwaZulu-Natal figures, former Treasury head Sipho Shabalala, now suspended as chief of Ithala, and former health boss Busi Nyembezi. The trio stand accused of similar charges in that province.

“Dear Amigo, I’m enclosing the surprise as promised,” Savoi e-mailed Kimberley hospital chief executive Shabbir in 2006. What Shabbir’s “surprise” was is not clear, but the e-mail was attached to a quotation for medical equipment, apparently to be sold to the Northern Cape Health Department.

In another e-mail to Shabbir, Savoi wrote: “Dear amigo, the invoices from Rehman Enterprises must be each one for a total amount based on R877 193 and as description it will be better to put ‘professional services rendered in Pakistan’. Please send me the revised invoices.”

Rehman Enterprises was Shabbir’s father’s company, based in Pakistan. It had entered an agreement with Savoi’s company Intaka, which an investigator says was purportedly to market Intaka’s water purifiers, or Watakas, in Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and India.

The agreement was signed a month after Intaka sold two Watakas to Shabbir’s employer, the Northern Cape Health Department. Shabbir played a key role in the transactions.

State-contracted forensic investigator Trevor White believes Shabbir’s father’s company was used to funnel R2.6 million in bribes.

According to his affidavit filed with the Northern Cape High Court, White believes Shabbir conspired with Shahzad Maqbool’s wife, Saima Shahzad, and his then-personal assistant, Nelmarie Oosthuizen, to set up what White says is a “bogus” company, Watertech, to launder R4.75 million in payments from Intaka relating to the sale of eight Watakas to the department. White also says in his affidavit:

“Intaka e-mailed Shabbir quotations, purportedly from competing firms, before the Wataka purchases were approved. White says these were created fraudulently to establish artificially high bid prices.

“Shabbir authorised payments for three Watakas, worth about R4.8 million each, in 2005 and 2006 without a formal bidding process.

“Shabbir shares a postal address with Watertech and, according to the company’s bank records, his colleague and neighbour Maqbool is the manager. Maqbool’s wife is Watertech’s only director.

“The R4.75 millkion Intaka paid to Watertech in six 2007 payments was for ‘Commission on sale W50’, this being the Watakas bought in 2005 and 2006.

“Watertech paid R1.8million in 2007 for a Kimberley property owned by Shabbir and his wife, demonstrating a flow of money from Intaka through Watertech to Shabbir.

“I submit that this sale was completed as a formality to legitimise the receipt of R1.8m by Shabbir and his wife,” White wrote.

Intaka’s former financial manager, Adriaan Laubscher, told White that Shabbir was owed R8 million in commissions on the Watakas; “R5 million of the money due to Dr Shabbir was paid into Watertech; (Laubscher) suspected the remaining R3m was paid to Rehman.” - Cape Times