Bail for Fidentia pair, but Brown still in jail

According to a report on the IoL site, the ruling was made yesterday by Cape Town Magistrate Eric Louw, who also ordered that they surrender their passports to the Scorpions and report to the police twice a week. The two men had asked for bail of R100 000 each and the State countered by demanding that they each post R3m. Louw said the charges against both men were ‘of a very grave and serious nature’. ‘This case is as big as it can get. White collar crime is the silent killer and saboteur of economical growth,’ he said. Full report on the IoL site

But Brown was expected to spend last night in jail as he could not raise the R1m bail. Maddock walked out of court after posting R100 000 in cash and signing over to the Scorpions a R900 000 bond on a property at Cape Infanta. Brown\'s legal team offered a similar guarantee on his home at upmarket Sunset Beach in Cape Town, says a reporton the IoL site. However, lead prosecutor Bruce Morrison rejected this, saying the property had been bought with money belonging to the Transport Sector Education and Training Authority (Teta), and was therefore the proceeds of crime. Brown\'s lawyers were reportedly seeking an alternative way of financing the bail. The Reserve Bank has frozen Brown\'s personal accounts, Absa has cut off his access bond facility on the Sunset Beach home, and his wife\'s business has been placed in liquidation. Full report on IoL site

Giving his reasons for granting bail, Louw said the ‘strength’ of the State’s case was a factor to be considered ‘but is not the ultimate test’ when deciding whether to grant bail. The issue here, said Louw, is not guilt but ‘where the interests of justice lie in relation to bail’. He said he got the impression, right from the start, that the ‘State is ready to put up a big fight and throw the book at the accused’. However, Louw said the State had failed to show that Brown and Maddock posed a significant flight risk, according to a Moneyweb report. They ‘had ample opportunity to leave the country’ but did not. It is difficult to prove that intimidation of witnesses will occur, however ‘intimidation in itself doesn’t mean witnesses won’t want to testify’. The magistrate said he did not share the investigators’ views that Brown and Maddock will destroy evidence. Louw said he believed the state was heavily relying on the fact that granting bail might undermine public confidence in the courts, but said the court also had to factor in the risk that pressure groups could use this to serve their own ends. Full Moneyweb report