Sahara Computers was always the Guptas\u2019 flagship company \u2013 the one the family cited to show they ran a legitimate business, not dependent on their political connections.<\/p>\n
Except, of course, it was neither of those things.<\/p>\n
Investigative journalism takes time and money. Help us do more. Be an amaB supporter.<\/a><\/p>\n Court papers recently filed by the Transnet Second Defined Benefit Fund (TSDBF) include documents showing that more than 98 percent of Sahara\u2019s profits for the month of June 2015 came from a series of illicit payments, extracted from Transnet.<\/p>\n The payments \u2013 totaling R122-million exactly \u2013 came from Albatime, a now defunct company that made its fortune by introducing Salim Essa, the Guptas\u2019 business partner, to Regiments Capital, a financial services firm at the center of state capture allegations.<\/p>\n (Read<\/a> amaBhungane\u2019s Trojan horse investigation.)<\/p>\n The payments were made under the guise of a bogus IT contract which promised Albatime \u2013 a one-man show based in a tiny Rivonia office \u2013 basic computer support services for two years at a cost of R122-million.<\/p>\n But a spreadsheet, sourced from the #GuptaLeaks and included in TSDBF\u2019s court papers, shows that Sahara recorded the costs of the contract at just R167 \u2013 leading to an astonishing profit of R121\u00a0999\u00a0833.<\/p>\n The bogus contract dwarfs any other business Sahara conducted that month. The second largest amount came from the Gupta-owned Annex Distribution (R20.9-million, but loss-making) and Edcon (R12.5-million), followed by a number of smaller payments of less than R3-million from Russells, Morkels, Joshua Doore and OK Furniture.<\/p>\n But none achieved the near-100% profit margin of the Albatime contract, and several were recorded as loss-making.<\/p>\n Altogether, Sahara recorded R187.85-million in turnover that month, of which R123.46-million was profit. Put differently, without the R122-million Transnet money laundered to it via Albatime, Sahara was hardly a profitable business at all.<\/p>\n