Shaik 'had to have known'
2006-09-26 07:51
Bloemfontein - Schabir Shaik "had to have known" he was committing fraud, Appeal Court Judge Mahomed Navsa told advocate Francois van Zyl, SC, on Monday, after Van Zyl tried to convince the court Shaik was not guilty of his fraud conviction.
Shaik was found guilty by Judge Hilary Squires in June last year of giving his auditors unlawful instructions to write off his R1.2m private loan accounts.
Shaik had alleged the money had been "development fees" for the ID card project Prodiba, but the evidence was rejected by Squires.
'Creative accounting'
Van Zyl said Schaik's auditors had done "creative accounting" and there was a possibility that he didn't know the loan accounts had been written off.
Ahmed Paruk, an auditor responsible for the books of the Nkobi group, was the sole witness in the Shaik case regarding Shaik's instruction that his debt be written off.
Van Zyl said: "He wasn't the best witness, but was supported by other evidence."
Judge Piet Streicher said the question was what had to happen if Shaik knew his loan accounts were being written off.
'Shaik knew'
"How much creative accounting could auditors do without input from the person whose account was being written off?" Navsa wanted to know, adding: "Shaik knew about such matters. He had to have known."
Shortly afterwards Van Zyl acknowledged that Shaik "was facing problems" if the court accepted that he was party to the decision to write off his accounts.