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Bosasa destroyed 40 000 documents to stymie SIU probe - Agrizzi

Bosasa deleted 40 000 documents implicating the company and its executives in corruption from its servers days before investigators from the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) could access them, according to Angelo Agrizzi.

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The company's former bagman and chief operating officer's sixth day on the witness stand at the judicial commission of inquiry into state capture has been dominated by evidence about the SIU report, with evidence leader Paul Pretorius reading from it and asking Agrizzi to confirm its findings.

So far, Agrizzi has largely confirmed more than half of the SIU report as correct.

The report found that an improper relationship between Bosasa and Department of Correctional Services officials Linda Mti and Patrick Gillingham had resulted in the company being awarded four tenders worth approximately R2bn.

Interestingly, the SIU report reveals how cyber forensic expert Jacques Malan's analysis of the data taken from Bosasa servers revealed that Bosasa had attempted to delete nearly 40 000 documents from its computer servers, in an attempt to hide incriminating evidence from SIU investigators in December 2008.

Cars, houses and monthly cash payments

"Malan had to employ advanced data recovery techniques, which assisted him in his endeavour to recover the maximum amount of data," the SIU report reads.

Agrizzi confirmed that the SIU visit to Bosasa offices was delayed by a week, which allowed them time to run a program on the servers to delete evidence of corruption involving Bosasa, Mti and Gillingham.

On Tuesday, Agrizzi gave evidence that the bribes paid to Mti and Gillingham extended to cars, houses and cash on a monthly basis.

It was also revealed how Bosasa was involved in the drafting of tender specification documents, well ahead of tenders being advertised by the correctional services department.

Confidential documents, recovered by the SIU, revealed that Gillingham had shared confidential documents with Agrizzi and former Bosasa boss Danny Mansell via an email address 'kobus@bfn.co.za'.

Agrizzi's testimony continues. Watch it live here.

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