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The National Prosecuting Authority's Asset Forfeiture Unit has secured a R583.8 million restraint order against two former South African employees of Swiss engineering group ABB, as well as their wives, and two Eskom subcontractors.
The provisional order was granted earlier this month but served on the six accused on Thursday.
Ex-ABB employees Mohammed Mooidheen and Vernon Pillay, their wives Raeesa Mooidheen and Aradhna Pillay, and Eskom subcontractors Impulse International and Indiwize Construction are facing charges of corruption, money laundering, fraud and forgery.
The NPA has accused ABB SA, the local subsidiary of the Zurich-headquartered multinational, of conspiring with Impulse to fix inflated contract prices for work at the troubled Kusile power station in 2016 and 2017.
According to the prosecution authority, Mooidheen and Pillay also entered into a "scheme" with former acting Eskom chief executive officer Matshela Koko, whereby his stepdaughter Koketso Choma was appointed a shareholder of Impulse.
Koko, his wife Mosima and Choma were arrested last year in October. Koko has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Abuse of power
The NPA said Mooidheen and Pillay abused their "senior positions" at ABB SA to favour Impulse as a subcontractor.
"Pillay and Mooidheen both played a role in the extraordinary approval decisions and the manipulation of procurement and governance processes to the advantage of Impulse, Impulse’s appointment, and the payment of excessive rates," it said.
"In return for these favours, Mooidheen, his wife Raeesa, Pillay and his wife Aradhna received gratification from Impulse, which was laundered through Indiwize." The NPA said the gratifications consisted of cash and motor vehicles.
The restraint order comes about four months after ABB SA acknowledged its involvement in a "multiyear scheme to pay bribes" at Eskom in a landmark US plea deal.
The engineering group entered into a $315 million (R5.5 billion) plea with US Department of Justice in December, where it acknowledged receiving confidential, internal Eskom information to help it win tenders. A previously announced settlement with Eskom forms part of the $315 million.
