Johannesburg - Crime-buster Paul O’Sullivan has been accused of plying a State witness with alcohol to make him testify against his arch-enemy, Czech fugitive millionaire Radovan Krejcir.
Doctor Marian Tupy alleges, in a review application to have his fraud guilty plea overthrown, that O’Sullivan stole Krejcir’s medical file from his offices; that he forged evidence; stole a biopsy; got him so drunk that he didn’t know he was signing affidavits; and set him up to sign a guilty plea when he thought he was getting indemnity from the state.
But O’Sullivan has shot back, describing Tupy’s allegations as lies.
Tupy, he said, was back on Krejcir’s payroll to ensure the state’s medical case against him disappeared, and that the alleged Mafia boss was threatening him.
O’Sullivan said Tupy was now committing fraud, and he would ensure the doctor was put behind bars.
The Roodepoort urologist was the main witness in a now withdrawn medical fraud case against Krejcir.
He signed a section 105 guilty plea for fraud and received a seven-year suspended sentence. In that plea, Tupy said he had helped Krejcir fake bladder cancer in order to claim R4.5 million from Liberty Life.
Now, in his legal papers filed against O’Sullivan, the National Prosecuting Authority, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Gauteng provincial commissioner of the Hawks, Colonel Dumisani Mbotho, Tupy claims Krejcir did in fact have cancer and he was forced to lie and say he didn’t.
Tupy claims that O’Sullivan approached him, claiming he had proof that Krejcir wanted to kill him and his family. O’Sullivan told him he would protect him, but only if he helped build a criminal case against Krejcir.
O’Sullivan denies this, saying Tupy approached him, asking for help with the Krejcir situation, in which he had become so embroiled that he feared for his life.
Tupy said his office at Flora clinic was broken into and patient files were missing. Later, at a meeting with O’Sullivan, Tupy said he (O’Sullivan) pulled out Krejcir’s medical file.
“On or about May 16, 2010, I was with O’Sullivan at his office… O’Sullivan produced a medical file which I recognised as one of mine, and it turned out to be the file on Krejcir… He would not explain to me how he came into possession of this file, and naturally it was through unlawful means,” the court papers state.
Pathologists are meant to keep biopsy samples for 30 years, but, according to Tupy’s application, O’Sullivan retrieved the biopsy samples from the pathologist.
In a separate motion filed before the court, Tupy has asked that O’Sullivan return the original and confidential medical file of Krejcir, which “he unlawfully obtained, alternatively, removed from the applicant’s consulting rooms at Flora Clinic”; to return the biopsy samples of Krejcir which “he unlawfully, and under false pretences, procured”; and to provide copies of recordings of meetings with the applicant during 2010.
“Along with the original medical file and biopsy samples of Krejcir, I would be in the position to conclusively prove that Krejcir certainly did have cancer of the bladder at the time of my diagnosis… It would conclusively prove that O’Sullivan manipulated the legal system in order to achieve his goals,” Tupy said.
He added that O’Sullivan had encouraged him to entice Krejcir to make a claim on Liberty Life.
“O’Sullivan carried a deep-rooted obsession regarding Krejcir, his hatred for this man spewed from his mouth continuously,” the papers say.
Tupy said O’Sullivan “played a spy game” with him, pretending he was being followed and giving him so many instructions every time they met that it took hours to get to the meetings. He then turned to alcohol, and O’Sullivan encouraged this, by already having a drink ready for him.
He said he was arrested, taken to police cells and put before the court for 12 minutes when he signed the guilty plea. He also said his attorney, Dolph Jonker, was hired and paid for by O’Sullivan.
He claimed that after a press conference he held in June this year, O’Sullivan sent him messages threatening him. He laid a charge of intimidation against O’Sullivan at the Edenvale police station in August.
Soon afterwards, Tupy’s legal adviser wrote O’Sullivan a letter telling him to stay away from his client.
In a responding affidavit filed by the deputy director of public prosecutions for the Johannesburg High Court, Riegel du Toit said he met Tupy and his attorney twice before their court appearance and Tupy knew what he was doing.
The Star