Lolly shot after turning on Krejcir

2011-03-27 12:28

Julian Rademeyer

Johannesburg - Police consider Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir a “prime suspect” in the murder of strip club boss Lolly Jackson, who was shot dead in May last year.

City Press has established that shortly before his death, Jackson was approached to give evidence against Krejcir as part of an investigation into a multimillion-rand money-laundering scheme.

Police believe that Jackson may have been killed to silence him and that the alleged trigger man, George Louka, also known as George Smith, was part of a wider conspiracy.

Krejcir, who vanished for nearly two days just before a police raid on his house, handed himself over to police early on Friday morning to face charges of fraud.

Police are also investigating allegations that Krejcir was tipped off about the money-laundering investigation by the former head of police ­crime intelligence in Gauteng, General Joey ­Mabasa.

'Bought protection'

Last week City Press revealed that the Hawks were investigating allegations that Krejcir had “bought” protection from top crime intelligence officers.

Hawks investigators claimed that their phones were being tapped, allegedly by crime intelligence officers, and that the information was being ­passed back to Krejcir.

This week two former business associates of Jackson, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, told City Press that Jackson was being offered a section 204 indemnity in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act in exchange for his testimony against Krejcir and other alleged members of the money-laundering syndicate.

Jackson was due to be arrested on money-laundering charges just four days before his death.

The arrest never took place and Jackson was ­later shot four times, allegedly by Louka, who vanished after a late-night phone call to Mabasa in which he supposedly confessed to the crime.

Turning state witness

In an interview with City Press this week, crime- buster Paul O’Sullivan confirmed that he sent a key affidavit on the money-laundering scheme to Mabasa on February 1 last year.

O’Sullivan, acting as intermediary, had a number of meetings with Jackson in which he showed him evidence implicating him in the money-laundering scheme which is believed to have siphoned more than R10 million out of South Africa.

O’Sullivan was on the verge of convincing ­Jackson to turn state witness.

According to O’Sullivan’s affidavit, Mabasa had agreed during meetings that discussions and ­documents “would be treated as top secret and ... for his eyes only”.

“I have subsequently found out that he also ­telephoned Krejcir after that meeting and briefed him,” O’Sullivan wrote.

Sudden transfer

Mabasa was suddenly transferred from crime intelligence in Gauteng to police headquarters in Pretoria last year after Krejcir told Media24 ­Investigations in an interview that he regarded Mabasa as a man he could turn to “for help in a difficult situation”.

The Mail & Guardian also revealed last year that Mabasa’s wife, Dorcas, had been a co-director – along with Krejcir’s wife, Katerina Krejcirova – of a company called Radlochron.

Contacted on Friday, Mabasa said: “I don’t want to comment on rubbish.” He said only that he had last seen Krejcir in April last year.

One of Jackson’s former associates said on ­Friday that he believed Jackson met Louka and Krejcir on the night he was killed, to tell Krejcir he “wanted out” of the money-laundering scheme.

“From what we understand, George wasn’t the one who shot (Jackson) and George wasn’t alone that night,” one of the associates said.

“As much as Lolly was a big, strong man, I can tell you he would have rolled (and become a ­witness) in the face of losing everything he had spent his life working for. I think investigators identified him as the weak link.”

- City Press