The SFO has evidence that the officials were involved in the key
negotiation stages that led Tanzania to purchase the military radar at
an inflated price.
The top ten include former Attorney General Andrew Chenge, Sailesh
Pragji Vithlani, Tanil Kumar Chandulal Somaiya, and Dr Idriss Rashidi.
Other players from the UK are Michael Peter Rouse, Sir Richard Harry
Evans, Michael John Turner, Julia Adgridge and two senior officials
from the British Aero Space Engineering (BAE System), the arms dealer
that manufactured the radar.
It is believed that there are still more names from the previous regime
that were part of the team that pocketed $12m in kickbacks from the
deal.
According to reliable sources inside the SFO, the kickbacks were paid
to Tanzania`s top officials in advance to move the negotiation process
along smoothly.
Chenge`s role
The UK investigators believe the former Minister for Infrastructure
Chenge was just `a conduit` through which the radar billions were
distributed to selected top government officials whose decisions were
crucial to the deal.
The SFO established that Chenge received $1.5m (2.1bn/-) from the deal
through a slush fund he set up in the UK island of Jersey.
According to a draft report written by the UK`s Serious Fraud Office
and seen by The Guardian on Sunday, Chenge received payments through
six credit transfers between June 19, 1997, and April 17, 1998, while
he was serving as Attorney General.
The billions were paid to account No.59662999 owned by Franton
Investment Limited through Bank Code No 204505 of Barclays Bank Plc,
according to the draft report, a final version of which has reportedly
already been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The SFO has established that Chenge owns Franton Investment, a
registered company that appears to have been established primarily to
enable the transfer of the dirty money.
According to information provided by the Jersey Authority, the $1.5m
was transferred from a Frankfurt branch of Barclays Bank to Chenge`s
account at a Jersey branch.
But aside from the money Chenge pocketed himself, he also used the
Franton account to dish out the money to others involved in the radar
deal.
For example, the SFO established that on September 20, 1999, Chenge
personally authorised the transfer of $1.2m from the Franton account to
Royal Bank of Scotland International in Jersey.
In May 1998, Chenge also authorised the transfer of $600,000 to an
account owned and operated by Langley Investments Ltd. The account was
officially operated by former Central Bank Governor Dr Idrissa Rashidi.
Rashidi is currently the managing director of the troubled Tanzania Electric Supply Company Ltd (Tanesco).
The SFO report concluded that both Rashidi and Chenge were key figures
in the corrupt radar deal, but they were acting with the full support
of top officials from the third phase regime.
Hiding the facts
Details made available to The Guardian on Sunday show that Chenge,
alarmed by the possibility of being detected, directed his financial
advisors abroad not to use his Tanzania address for any correspondence
concerning the offshore bank account.
“Instead Chenge asked his financial advisors to send all documentation
to C/o 11 Sid Mouth Road, London this is the current address for JO
Humbros used during their communication with Chenge,“ reads part of
the SFO investigation report, compiled by lawyer Mathew Cowie.
The London address was the subject of a search operation conducted on March 26, last year.
Mr Fat from Tanzania
The SFO investigation established that, to avoid being caught, the
facilitators of the radar deal gave Vithlani the codename `Mr Fat`,
while any mention of bribing or corruption was replaced with the
euphemism `commitments`.
“I had an extensive discussion with our friend and I have this morning
had a meeting with the AG to go through outstanding contractual
issues,“ reads part of the fax message from a Mr Simpkins confiscated
by SFO investigators early last year.
“The fat man having, as I stipulated, now resolved all the issues, is
keen to sign an addendum to his agreement and argues he has a lot of
commitments to a lot of old and new players as the project has taken
considerable period to effect.“
“In addition he has stated to achieve the above compromises, new promises have had to have been made,“ the fax reads.
Again in September 1997, Simpkins wrote a fax message to a BAE official
using more code language. “Also over the weekend our fat friend has
been working to resolve the outstanding commercial issues,“ he wrote.
“This morning he informed me that all issues are now resolved as
follows: They [the government] have accepted English Law with
arbitration in London.“
Registered a front company in Panama
In what is believed to have been a tactic to obscure the deal`s
corruption, Vithlani and his partners registered a front company in
Panama called Envers Trading Co Ltd.
The company, according to SFO records, received $8m in kickbacks between 2000 and 2005.
The payments came from Red Diamond Trading Co Ltd a front company of
BAE System until December 2005 when it was terminated at a settlement
of $3.36m.
In 1999 BAE System, through Red Diamond, registered in the British
Virgin Islands and entered into an agreement with Envers Trading Co.
The Panamanian company was identified as a consultant working in
Tanzania, which acted for Siemens Plessey System (SPS) in 1992/93 when
the government was considering purchasing the radar for $88m.
SPS was acquired by BAE System in 1995, according to available details.
UK investigators have established that Tanil Somaiya and Vithlani held
a power of attorney over Envers for six years, until December 2006.
Somaiya had earlier told the SFO that he wasn`t involved directly in
the radar deal, but that everything had been under the control of his
partner, Vithlani.
* SOURCE: SUNDAY OBSERVER
Post published in: Africa News