The SA Revenue Service (SARS) has won the first round of its legal bid to get businessman Christo Wiese and three colleagues to pay a multimillion-rand tax debt.
The case deals with how London-headquartered multinational oil concern Tullow Oil transferred the ownership of oil assets out of South Africa in 2007.
According to the tax agency, Tullow created an "elaborate set of arrangements" to extract its South African assets without paying tax.