Telecom graft probe set to net 2 key suspects

THE investigation of fraud and corruption that is claimed to have marked the sale of scrap copper wire by Telecom Namibia during 2000 may see two key suspects being charged and appearing in court as early as today.

The Office of the Prosecutor General and the Namibian Police’s Commercial Crime Unit have been preparing this week to add two additional suspects – a recently-dismissed Telecom manager and a prominent Windhoek businessman – to the case in which another ex-Telecom manager and a Windhoek scrap dealer are facing 13 charges of fraud. The Police’s Public Relations and Liaison Division declined to comment on the matter yesterday, remarking that it would be premature.However, informed sources said it was planned to get the two suspects to report to the Police today, after which they would be taken to court to be formally charged and granted bail.They would later probably be added to the High Court case in which a former Procurement Manager at Telecom, Ivan Ganes, and a part owner of Dresselhaus Scrap CC, Etienne Weakley, face 13 counts of fraud.Ganes pleaded guilty to all charges on May 23, and is set to be sentenced in the High Court on Wednesday.Weakley’s trial is set to start on September 5.The charges against Ganes and Weakley do not, however, encompass all the allegations of corruption, fraud and theft raised in connection with the business relationship between Telecom Namibia and Dresselhaus Scrap CC between October 1997 and early 2001.Ganes has told High Court Judge Kato van Niekerk that he, Weakley, a second co-owner of Dresselhaus Scrap, Heinz Dresselhaus, and another former Telecom manager, James Camm, had agreed in late 1997 already that they would deviate from an agreement in terms of which Telecom was to sell scrap copper wire to the firm at agreed rates.According to Ganes, the four men were to share in the unauthorised profits that were to flow to Dresselhaus Scrap CC in the process.As a result of their scheme, Ganes admitted, Telecom was paid N$1,125 million less than it should have been by Dresselhaus for material the firm bought from the parastatal.Ganes has admitted earning N$161 039 from the scam.Its scale could, however, go substantially beyond those figures.Telecom Namibia has accused Ganes of not only having charged Dresselhaus Scrap CC less for the copper wire than he should have, but also of not having charged the firm at all on some occasions.Telecom Namibia lost potential earnings of N$1,8 million, Telecom claimed in the Cape High Court when it asked for the sequestration of Ganes’s estate after he was first charged with fraud in mid-2001.The company also claimed that it had discovered that Ganes had received at least N$2,7 million – and as much as N$4,24 million – in “secret payments” or, in other words, in bribes, from companies that did business with Telecom during the six years that Ganes was employed with the parastatal.At the time of that litigation in Cape Town, Ganes still denied that he had ever received bribes.What he had received were payments for “consultancy services” he had delivered and advice he had given to four firms, he claimed.One of these was Dresselhaus Scrap CC.Telecom further alleged that when Ganes was confronted with this during an enquiry under South Africa’s Insolvency Act in August 2001, he stated that he had received between N$600 000 and N$700 000 from Dresselhaus Scrap CC or Weakley.The Police’s Public Relations and Liaison Division declined to comment on the matter yesterday, remarking that it would be premature.However, informed sources said it was planned to get the two suspects to report to the Police today, after which they would be taken to court to be formally charged and granted bail.They would later probably be added to the High Court case in which a former Procurement Manager at Telecom, Ivan Ganes, and a part owner of Dresselhaus Scrap CC, Etienne Weakley, face 13 counts of fraud.Ganes pleaded guilty to all charges on May 23, and is set to be sentenced in the High Court on Wednesday.Weakley’s trial is set to start on September 5. The charges against Ganes and Weakley do not, however, encompass all the allegations of corruption, fraud and theft raised in connection with the business relationship between Telecom Namibia and Dresselhaus Scrap CC between October 1997 and early 2001.Ganes has told High Court Judge Kato van Niekerk that he, Weakley, a second co-owner of Dresselhaus Scrap, Heinz Dresselhaus, and another former Telecom manager, James Camm, had agreed in late 1997 already that they would deviate from an agreement in terms of which Telecom was to sell scrap copper wire to the firm at agreed rates.According to Ganes, the four men were to share in the unauthorised profits that were to flow to Dresselhaus Scrap CC in the process.As a result of their scheme, Ganes admitted, Telecom was paid N$1,125 million less than it should have been by Dresselhaus for material the firm bought from the parastatal.Ganes has admitted earning N$161 039 from the scam.Its scale could, however, go substantially beyond those figures.Telecom Namibia has accused Ganes of not only having charged Dresselhaus Scrap CC less for the copper wire than he should have, but also of not having charged the firm at all on some occasions.Telecom Namibia lost potential earnings of N$1,8 million, Telecom claimed in the Cape High Court when it asked for the sequestration of Ganes’s estate after he was first charged with fraud in mid-2001.The company also claimed that it had discovered that Ganes had received at least N$2,7 million – and as much as N$4,24 million – in “secret payments” or, in other words, in bribes, from companies that did business with Telecom during the six years that Ganes was employed with the parastatal.At the time of that litigation in Cape Town, Ganes still denied that he had ever received bribes.What he had received were payments for “consultancy services” he had delivered and advice he had given to four firms, he claimed.One of these was Dresselhaus Scrap CC.Telecom further alleged that when Ganes was confronted with this during an enquiry under South Africa’s Insolvency Act in August 2001, he stated that he had received between N$600 000 and N$700 000 from Dresselhaus Scrap CC or Weakley.