UPDATE 1- Agrizzi denied bail as court hears of capital flight and Italian connections

Former Bosasa COO last year bought hillside home in Italy

CAPE TOWN, October 14 (ANA) – Former Bosasa chief operations officer Angelo Agrizzi was on Wednesday denied bail in his first court appearance on corruption charges as it emerged he had concealed his assets and acquired a home in Italy.

It was Agrizzi’s first court appearance on charges stemming from a string of bribes allegedly paid to former ANC MP Vincent Smith.

The Palm Ridge specialised commercial crimes court refused Agrizzi bail after the Investigating Directorate (ID) of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) argued that he had lied in an earlier bail affidavit about both his financial situation and the fact that he still held an Italian passport.

It also emerged in court that Agrizzi had recently transferred millions of rands offshore and bought real estate in the Tuscan hillside town of Castel del Piano.

Investigators said Agrizzi in February 2019 told the court that he and his wife had movable assets valued at approximately R2.65 million (US$160,734) and immoveable property worth roughly R14 million.

“The true position is that as at 06 February 2019, the Agrizzis owned movable assets (excluding household furniture, jewellery and art) of R35.6 million and not R2.65 million,” the ID said.

“While he claimed he had ‘fixed property which I cannot afford to lose’, he did not disclose that the property is in fact owned by the Agrizzi Family Trust and was being used as security for loans made to Agrizzi in his personal capacity by ABSA.”

Agrizzi owed ABSA almost R8 million and last paid a loan instalment in February last year, with the result that the family trust recently tried to auction off property to pay the bank

The Investigative Directorate said while Agrizzi had told the court that he was a South African citizen with strong emotional ties in the Republic of South Africa, he failed to disclose that he “also had strong ties to Italy”.

“He failed to hand to court his Italian passport, claiming that he had lost it,” they said.

“More importantly, he failed to disclose that between 11 December 2018 and 19 January 2019, before and while appearing before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, he transferred R11.98 million and his wife transferred R11.99 million to off-shore accounts.”

Italian authorities had confirmed, the investigators said, that both Agrizzi and his wife recently opened bank accounts in Italy and transferred funds from South Africa.

“On 5 March 2019, Agrizzi bought real estate/property in Castel Del Piano in Italy for €880 000.00 (R17 million) as well as a luxury vehicle. A bank account in the name of Agrizzi’s wife has a balance of €714 419.50. “

The information was uncovered with the help of the South African Revenue Service and Asset Forfeiture Unit was taking steps to seize the couple’s Italian assets, the Investigative Directorate said.

Agrizzi in sensational evidence before the Zondo commission claimed he had corrupted not only Smith but fellow ANC MP Cedric Frolick with large sums of cash to overcome parliamentary resistance to the department of correctional awarding lucrative contracts to Bosasa.

Smith has pleaded not guilty to fraud and corruption charges and was released on bail on October 1.

He is due to appear in court again on December 3.

Bosasa won government contracts worth more than R1 billion between 2004 and 2006. Despite warnings from the Special Investigating Unit in 2009, these continued to run until 2019.

– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Desiree Erasmus