O\u2019Sullivan \u2013 corruption buster or gun for hire?<\/strong><\/p>\nO\u2019Sullivan \u2013 who has a long career of having worked with the police and is renowned for having exposed corruption within its ranks \u2013 has played an important role in the run up to van Niekerk\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n
On 18 January O\u2019Sullivan called up the former Moti Group employee from London and warned him to come clean on the alleged theft or face the consequences, saying:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll face the music. By the way we know exactly where you\u2019re going and when you\u2019re going\u2026 I didn\u2019t phone you to let you \u2013 a little pipsqueak like you \u2013 interrogate me. Trust me when I tell you, you will face the music for what you\u2019ve done. You can either cooperate with me, and things can be handled that way, or you can put your head in the ground and wait for justice to catch up with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Niekerk\u2019s lawyer Stephen May has alleged that O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s role is concerning and underscores that there was improper \u201cexternal influence\u201d in the arrest of van Niekerk.<\/p>\n
In a letter sent to the senior prosecutor at the Randburg Magistrate\u2019s Court and to SAPS members, May writes: \u201cAt this stage it is noted that O\u2019Sullivan is not a member of the South African Police Service and it is therefore a matter of concern that there is so much reliance upon him in this matter\u201d.<\/p>\n
May said O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s call to van Niekerk on 18 January, which was made on the same day the arrest warrant was issued, and the \u201cflagrant disregard\u201d for the order not to move van Niekerk from Durban \u201clead inexorably to the grim conclusion\u201d that van Niekerk\u2019s arrest was \u201cthe product of external influence which was irrational, male fide and had nothing to do with the legitimate prosecution of any prima facie case\u201d.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s role is ironic, given that he and Moti were once viciously opposed.<\/p>\n
In 2012, O\u2019Sullivan publicly threatened Moti with arrest in connection with an alleged attempt to assassinate Naeem Cassim. Moti and his close friend were said to have been in a dispute with Cassim over money, \u00a0and were accused of having been behind an incident\u00a0 the previous year when Cassim and two friends were forced off the R512 by another vehicle. Cassim told media at the time that they had been trailed by three other vehicles and had been shot at multiple times.<\/p>\n
Moti has always maintained his innocence.<\/p>\n
Cassim then hired O\u2019Sullivan, who very publicly threatened Moti with prison time and warned him that he would need to \u201cstock up on Vaseline. Twenty years is a very long time, old chap\u201d.<\/p>\n
In separate radio interviews in 2012, O\u2019Sullivan and Moti traded accusations. Moti accused O\u2019Sullivan of smearing and harassing him. \u201cHe\u2019s made a list\u201d, Moti told the interviewer, \u201cif I\u2019ve had an argument with you and the dog next door and my neighbour, he goes to see them. So builds a case and then he comes in and says \u2018I want to settle on these bases\u2019. And that\u2019s what he\u2019s doing. He\u2019s extorting me at the moment\u201d.<\/p>\n
In O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s interview the following day, he in turn accused Moti of acting in \u201ctypical mafioso\u201d fashion. Speaking about the Cassim case, he was emphatic: \u201cI carried out an investigation and the facts speak for themselves\u201d. Moti, in his unambiguous view, was guilty.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I have a contract with the complainant where, if he starts backing off after I\u2019ve exposed all the criminals, I\u2019m entitled to continue with the investigation and charge him anyway \u2013 and I intend to do that. Nobody will buy me off.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the case was dropped later that year, O\u2019Sullivan blamed it on a technicality and said \u201cthere is incontrovertible evidence in this matter and I have absolutely no doubt that the trial will proceed and justice will be done\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Moti Group told amaBhungane that the case was struck off due to lack of evidence.<\/p>\n
In 2013 the National Prosecuting Authority decided not to pursue the matter and the feud between the two men died down.<\/p>\n
Thereafter O\u2019Sullivan emerged surprisingly as a Moti supporter.<\/p>\n
When Peter Hain, a British peer who campaigned against apartheid and made headlines for speaking out against state capture, entered into a commercial relationship with the Moti Group in Zimbabwe, he told amaBhungane that O\u2019Sullivan, his close friend, had given the Group a clean bill of health.<\/p>\n
Now documents seen by amaBhungane suggest that the turn in O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s relationship with Moti may have been cemented by financial interests.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan appears to have warmed to Moti as he started falling out with Cassim over money he said was due for the investigation his firm had done for Cassim.<\/p>\n
On 5 February 2015 O\u2019Sullivan obtained a summary judgement from the Gauteng High Court against Cassim, ordering him to pay you R1\u00a0543\u00a0505.07 with interest.<\/p>\n
A few months after that, O\u2019Sullivan entered into a loan agreement with Moti \u2013 seemingly the start of a sustained partnership.<\/p>\n
The loan agreement, signed on 8 June 2015, would see Moti company Waleed investments loan a total of R1\u00a0681\u00a0542.80 to O\u2019Sullivan \u2013 a figure strikingly similar to what O\u2019Sullivan claims he was owed by Cassim. The debt owed by Cassim would be ceded to Moti\u2019s company.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan denied that the judgement he obtained against Cassim had anything to do with his apparent \u201cswitch\u201d to Moti.<\/p>\n
He said that as early as 2014, after he had terminated his agreement with Cassim for non-payment of his fees and begun litigating against him, he entered into a loan agreement with an unrelated company that Moti then acquired a stake in.<\/p>\n
He says that around the time he obtained a judgement from Cassim, \u201cthere had been an attempt by people connected to Cassim, to extort an amount of R50m from Moti\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter terminating the mandate, in 2013, and discovering the attempted extortion, I washed my hands of Cassim and the alleged crimes committed against him\u201d.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan says that when the state decided not to pursue charges against Moti and it \u201cbecame apparent that Moti had not<\/em> been involved in the alleged murder of Cassim\u201d.<\/p>\nHe apologised to the man he had had in his crosshairs not long before \u201cfor unwittingly assisting Cassim to extort him\u201d.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan explains the threats and harsh words he reserved for Moti as a schoolmasterly attempt to ensure things did not get out of hand: \u201cAt that time, there was a lot of tit for tat and I did not want to see things escalate out of hand, so took a hard line\u2026 I wanted to drive the \u2018behave everybody\u2019 message home.\u201d<\/p>\n
After his and Moti\u2019s relationship improved, O\u2019Sullivan says that Moti asked him to cede to him the judgment against Cassim \u2013 \u201ca straightforward business transaction, covered by written agreements,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan has taken issue with the insinuation that he \u201cflipped\u201d to Moti\u2019s side, telling amaBhungane that this \u201cdemonstrates a predisposed intention to colour your intended story\u201d.<\/p>\n
He alleged that van Niekerk was \u201cpretending to be a whistle\u2010blower\u2026 [to] cover up the crimes of theft of more than 4,000 documents\u2026 and handing same to your employer\u2019s antagonistic opponent\u201d.<\/p>\n
As someone who has himself helped uncover corruption in the police and exposed powerful political figures, O\u2019Sullivan is no stranger to police abuses.<\/p>\n
In a submission to the State Capture Commission he described an incident in 2016 when he was pulled off an aircraft just as he was about to depart for the UK with his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was removed form an aeroplane about to depart for London and together with my two minor children forced to disembark in full view of all the passengers in the aeroplane. I was then handcuffed and arrested in the presence of my two minor children, which left my children severely traumatized and me thoroughly humiliated\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026My arrest and subsequent detention was, with respect, not intended to secure my attendance at a criminal trial, but rather intended to harass and intimidate me and to prevent and punish me from investigating corruption within the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan, however, sees \u201cno parallel at all\u201d between what happened to him, and the case of van Niekerk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As controversial businessman Zunaid Moti\u2019s sprawling multi-billion rand conglomerate scrambles to contain a leak of sensitive company information, questions have been raised about the role of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and prominent forensic investigator Paul O\u2019Sullivan. Twenty-eight-year-old Clinton…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":25772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1281,2],"tags":[1174],"class_list":["post-25769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motifiles","category-stories","tag-zunaid-moti"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29837,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25769\/revisions\/29837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}