News24.com | NPA’s first state capture trial ends in discharge humiliation, as Guptas claim 'justice was done'

Iqbal Sharma, Seipati Dhlamini, Limakatso Moorosi and Peter Thabethe in the Free State High Court. Photo by Gallo Images/Volksblad/Mlungusi Louw

• The Dubai Appeal Court has refused to extradite Atul and Rajesh Gupta to face trial in Bloemfontein on charges they laundered the unlawful proceeds of the alleged R24.9 million Nulane scam.
• It was the State’s case that the Free State government paid R24.9 million to Gupta-linked Nulane Investment for a fraudulent feasibility study on the Mohoma Mobung project, which Nulane paid Deloitte R1.5 million to do. Nulane then changed that report to favour the Gupta-linked Paras Dairy.
• Now the NPA's efforts to prove that case have ended in the accused successfully applying for summary acquittal.  

The National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) first state capture trial has ended in humiliation – with a judge finding that all the accused should be summarily acquitted because of the lack of evidence against them.

When Free State High Court Judge Nompumeleo Gusha ruled that the State had failed to produce enough evidence to show that the Gupta family and their associates were implicated in the alleged laundering of R24.9 million of the proceeds of the alleged Nulane fraud, she said she knew her decision would "invoke a sense of loss, if not dejection, to the citizenry of this country".

"It is an inescapable fact that almost R25 million of taxpayers' money left the fiscus. The questions that remain are why and who facilitated this. Regrettably, in casu (in this case), the institutions responsible to answer those questions failed," she said.

Gusha added that the State's own financial expert witnesses had sounded the "death knell" for its case when they admitted that they had made mistakes in their assessment of the Gupta network's finances and conceded that there was nothing untoward about its money transfers.

The judge further slammed the police's failed attempts to properly secure documents relevant to the Nulane trial as a "comedy of errors" and lambasted the State for "the lackadaisical manner in which this case was investigated and approached".

"I can therefore not take this aspect any further than I have save to conclude with the following African proverb, 'Haste and hurry can only bear children with many regrets along the way'," she said, before granting all but one of the accused Section 174 discharges in the case.

Former Free State agriculture department official Limakatso Moorosi then closed her case and was acquitted of all the charges against her by Gusha.

AS IT HAPPENED | Nulane case: NPA's first state capture trial ends in discharge, judge slams State 'ineptitude'

It was the State's case that the Free State Department of Agriculture paid R24.9 million to Nulane Investment, a company owned and controlled by former Transnet Board member Iqbal Sharma, for a fraudulent feasibility study for the Free State’s flagship Mohoma Mobung project – the genesis of the alleged Vrede Dairy Project scam – between 2011 and 2012.

Despite the fact that Nulane Investment had no staff, the department successfully motivated for a deviation from procurement rules to appoint it to perform the feasibility study.

Nulane then subcontracted Deloitte, at a cost of R1.5 million, to do that work.

Nulane Investment is alleged to have subsequently changed the findings of the Deloitte-authored study to identify Paras – an Indian dairy farm allegedly linked to the Guptas – as the most suitable implementing partner for setting up a milk processing plant in Vrede, Free State.

The alleged Vrede Dairy Project scam, which would see millions of rands intended for poor black dairy farmers allegedly being diverted to the Guptas and their associates, was then born.

That alleged fraud and money-laundering is itself the subject of another criminal trial, in which former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane has been charged.

The Vrede Dairy Project case is set to return to court in August, but the State’s failure in the Nulane case may raise understandable concerns about its prospects of success in that trial.

The NPA, however, maintains that it remains capable of prosecuting "state capture" cases."We will be reflecting on the judgment with a view to determine legal avenues to explore," Investigating Director advocate Andrea Johnson said in a statement, adding:

Speaking through their lawyers, the Gupta family told News24 that they welcomed "today's acquittal in the Bloemfontein High Court".

"Justice was done," they stated.

"Of importance to note is that the court severely criticised the investigation done by state bodies. Had the investigation been done properly, no charges would have been brought in the first place. It is lamentable that people’s lives can be so disrupted by such a poor investigation and such poor decisions," the family said.

READ | UAE refuses Gupta extradition request on a technicality, but NPA says SA 'ticked all the boxes'

They further stressed that Gusha "specifically found that it was positively not shown that Atul Gupta was responsible for any of the money transfers nor was there any finding that Rajesh Gupta, Chetali Gupta or Arti Gupta were implicated in any way in the allegations, which in any event failed".

That will clearly be immensely damaging to the State’s hopes of reigniting its failed attempt to seek the extradition of Atul and Rajesh Gupta on the Nulane charges.