Barely three weeks after the South African government seized $9.3million allegedly Nigerian government’s funds to buy arms in the country, another $5.7 million has been confiscated for yet another arms deal.
According to South African newspaper City Press, the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has seized $5.7 million (R64 million) for allegedly being proceeds of illegal transactions.
According to City Press, the department for offences against the state in the Special Investigating Unit is also involved.
Documents released by the paper show that the first consignment was approved by the Nigerian government and that country’s national security adviser personally issued the end-user certificate for the transaction.
An entire “shopping list” was supplied with the certificate, which included everything from helicopters to unmanned aircraft, rockets and ammunition.
This second transaction is said to be between Cerberus Risk Solutions, an arms broker in Cape Town, and a Nigerian company in Abuja named Societe D’Equipments Internationaux.
Societe D’Equipments Internationaux paid the R60 million into Cerberus’ account at Standard Bank, the source says.
Cerberus was previously registered as a broker with the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), but the registration expired in May this year.
The companies marketing and contracting permits also expired at the same time.
The company has since applied for re-registration, but the application lay in the NCACC’s mailbox for more than two months, investigations reveal.
Sources say the bank became suspicious after Cerberus apparently tried to pay the money back to the Nigerian company, after which the bank became suspicious.
The NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit subsequently obtained a court order in the South Gauteng High Court to seize the money.
When contacted, Cerberus’ attorney, Martin Hood, declined to comment on the matter.
However, NPA spokesperson, Nathi Mncube, said there were no indications that the two transactions were related.
“However, both are now the subject of a criminal investigation and all possible information and connections are being investigated,” said Mncube.
