South Africa seizes Nigeria's $5.7m in another secret arms deal bust

Three weeks after South African government seized
$9.3million allegedly belonging to the Nigerian government,
they have once again confiscated $5.7million arms money
from Nigeria.
According to South African newspaper City Press , the
money was seized by South Africa’s Asset Forfeiture Unit of
the National Prosecuting Authority for allegedly being the
proceeds of illegal transactions and even shared some
documents. See the full report after the cut...
From City Press
The Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting
Authority (NPA) has seized $5.7 million (R64 million)
for yet another arms deal between South Africa and
Nigeria.
This is the second multimillion-rand arms deal
between the two countries in the past month that has
resulted in the money being frozen in South African
banks.
Last month, R103 million in $100 bills stashed in
suitcases was seized at Lanseria Airport, north of
Joburg.
The money was frozen in both cases for allegedly
being the proceeds of illegal transactions.
City Press’ sister paper Rapport has learnt that the
department for offences against the state in the
Special Investigating Unit is also involved.
Documents in the newspaper’s possession show that
the earlier consignment was approved by the Nigerian
government – that country’s national security adviser
personally issued the end-user certificate for the
transaction.
An entire “shopping list” was supplied with the
certificate, which included everything from helicopters
to unmanned aircraft, rockets and ammunition.
Sources close to the investigation said the latest
transaction was between Cerberus Risk Solutions, an
arms broker in Cape Town, and Societe D’Equipments
Internationaux, a Nigerian company in Abuja.
An impeccable source said this company paid the
R60 million into Cerberus’ account at Standard Bank.
Cerberus was previously registered as a broker with
the National Conventional Arms Control Committee
(NCACC), but the registration expired in May this year.
The marketing and contracting permits also expired at
the same time.
The company has since applied for re-registration, but
the application lay in the NCACC’s mailbox for more
than two months.
Sources told Rapport that Cerberus apparently tried to
pay the money back to the Nigerian company, after
which the bank became suspicious.
The NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit subsequently
obtained a court order in the South Gauteng High
Court to seize the money.
Cerberus’ attorney, Martin Hood, this week declined to
comment on the matter.
NPA spokesperson Nathi Mncube said there were no
indications that the two transactions were related.
“However, both are now the subject of a criminal
investigation and all possible information and
connections are being investigated,” said Mncube.
Source: Citypress.co.za