The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has laid a criminal complaint of fraud, forgery, uttering (the use of a forged document) and contravention of provisions of the Companies Act against former Eskom chairperson, Ben Ngubane.
Ngubane and his wife’s company, Huntrex 305, borrowed R50 million from a state-owned entity, failed to repay it and was subsequently liquidated.
The charges were filed by Outa yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon at Olifantsfontein Police Station and were motivated by the suspected forgery of share certificates – provided by Ngubane – that prevented liquidators from selling three companies, owned by Huntrex, in order to pay back the loan, according to a statement issued by the organisation.
Outa’s communications director, Rob Hutchinson, told FTW Online that the timing of the charges was in no way linked to Ngubane’s resignation from Eskom on Monday and that the organisation had begun investigations into the matter months before.
“Based on the investigation and evidence obtained by Outa, it is clear that the share certificates produced by doctor Ngubane were fraudulent as there are several blatant mistakes made on them,” said Outa’s portfolio director for energy, Ted Blom.
He added that the evidence Outa had collected would substantiate the claims of fraud and that the organisation was confident of the strength of its case against Ngubane.
