Extradited British suspect Michael Lomas appears in court in Kusile graft case
An extradited British suspect who faces 65 graft charges in relation to a R745 million contract at Eskom’s Kusile power plant appeared in the Kempton Park magistrate’s court on Friday.
Michael Lomas arrived in South Africa from the United Kingdom, where he was first arrested on these charges more than three years ago at the request of local authorities.
He will stand trial for fraud, corruption and money-laundering with four other accused people, among them former Eskom managers Frans Hlakudi and Abram Masango, the former group executive for capital at the power utility, as well as businessmen Maphoko Kgomoeswana and Antonio Trindade.
The latter is the chief executive of Tubular Construction Projects, with whom Eskom signed the construction contract for upgrades at Kusile in 2014. It would be manipulated to escalate by almost double to R1.4 billion.
Lomas also worked for Tubular Construction and left the country while the case was under investigation, but before any other suspects were arrested, hence the request to British authorities to apprehend him, the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) said on Friday.
He repeatedly challenged an extradition order granted by the UK secretary of state early last year.
“Subsequently, he lodged an appeal against the extradition order, and he was unsuccessful,” Idac spokesman Henry Mamothame said.
Lomas launched four more appeals, all of which were dismissed. He then turned to the European Court of Human Rights to halt the extradition process, but this application was also dismissed.
Lomas will appear in the Palm Ridge specialised commercial crimes court on Tuesday for a formal bail application.
He was flown to South Africa under medical supervision, but Idac said it could not comment on his state of health.
The directorate obtained a preservation order worth R1.4 billion against the 11 accused, six of which were companies.