German prosecutors link Mbeki ally to arms deal bribes
In the latest development in the arms deal saga, German prosecutors believe Tony Georgiadis, the shipping tycoon regarded as close to President Thabo Mbeki, helped channel millions of dollars in arms deal bribes to South African officials and Cabinet members.
The allegation, says the Mail & Guardian Online, is contained in a request for legal assistance that the German embassy in Pretoria forwarded to the Department of Foreign Affairs on 28 September. The document, a formal request for SA help to follow leads, presents the firmest outline yet of a criminal probe, led by state prosecutors in Düsseldorf, into the sale of four naval corvettes to SA. The German request follows a similar one from Britain last year, swelling a body of evidence that flatly contradicts governments insistence that the main contracts in the controversial arms deal were not tainted by corruption. The request lists 10 accused persons, Georgiadis prominently among them, and states that contraventions of German anti-bribery legislation, fraud and attempted tax evasion are being investigated. The other nine suspects are mostly executives from German companies making up the consortium chosen as preferred supplier for the corvettes in November 1998 and awarded the multibillion-rand contract in December 1999. Georgiadis flatly denied wrongdoing. Georgiadis, who is based in London, shipped oil to apartheid SA in contravention of sanctions and developed close relations with members of the previous government. He extended his sphere of influence to the ANC after 1990, developing relations, according to several accounts, with Mbeki, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, her husband and former national prosecutions head Bulelani Ngcuka and Penuell Maduna, a former Minister. Full Mail & Guardian Online report