State opposes Eric Wood's Europe trip fearing he may pull a 'Bushiri, Gupta' move

The National Prosecuting Authority has opposed an application by former director of Regiments Capital Eric Wood to have his bail conditions amended, saying he’s a flight risk and may be charged in other cases under investigation.

Wood, who has dual SA and UK citizenship, was arrested in May and released on R250,000 bail with the proviso that he hand over his two passports.

Wood and his co-accused, who include former Transnet bosses Brian Molefe and Siyabonga Gama, former CFO Anoj Singh and former acting CFO Garry Pita, are scheduled to be back in the specialised commercial crimes court in Palm Ridge next month.

In his statement to court, Wood said he needed to travel to Spain to visit his parents and to London in the UK to see his daughter.

Wood said he had always co-operated with law enforcement agencies and had no intention of evading the trial.

The state said Wood may not think twice about absconding, just like Malawi's self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri and the Gupta family who skipped the country when they were in a situation similar to his.

Investigator Lt-Col Denwill Coetzee stated in an affidavit that the R250,000 bail paid by Wood was “relatively small in relation to the assets declared to the court”.

“He [Wood] is appearing for an offence involving R450m,” Coetzee said.

It would be extremely difficult to extradite Wood from the UK.

“It would not be in the interest of the republic to risk being engaged in another lengthy challenge in a foreign country with minimal prospects of success,” Coetzee said.

The charges Wood has been implicated in relate to R93m which Transnet paid Trillian for organising a R30bn club loan to help buy 1,064 locomotives. It was allegedly a double payment as Transnet had already paid Regiments, where Wood was also a director, for the work. Trillian allegedly did nothing to earn the fee but invoiced Transnet.

This is a developing story.

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.