Intaka curator taken to court

Businessman Gaston Savoi. Picture: Lizell Muller

Businessman Gaston Savoi. Picture: Lizell Muller

Published Mar 25, 2011

Share

The curator appointed to take control of the assets of Intaka Holdings “secretly” went to court last month and was granted an order extending his powers beyond South Africa.

Now Rodrigo Savoi, a director of Intaka, has asked the Pietermaritzburg High Court to rescind the order.

Savoi is understood to be the son of Uruguayan billionaire Gaston Savoi, the owner of Intaka, who is among 15 people charged in KwaZulu-Natal with four companies with tender fraud, corruption and money laundering.

It is alleged that Intaka supplied water purification and oxygen plants to hospitals in the province at inflated prices.

Hendrick Vorster Hattingh was appointed by the court last year to take control of all the elder Savoi’s possessions pending the finalisation of the case against him.

Last month, Hattingh was granted an order authorising him to request that courts in the British Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Panama, Monaco and Switzerland recognise him as the curator of Intaka and recognise a restraint order issued by the Pietermaritzburg High Court in August.

Rodrigo Savoi said in papers yesterday that Hattingh had used the order to freeze the Swiss bank accounts of two Savoi companies and that this was prejudicial to the entities.

He said the order had been granted without Intaka or other parties affected by it being notified, and it should therefore be rescinded.

The initial court order had appointed Hattingh as the curator of the property of Intaka, and not that of the company or its owner, Rodrigo Savoi said.

Hattingh had not been given the power to institute court proceedings and launch applications to extend the operation of the restraint order to other countries.

The matter was adjourned to next Thursday. - The Mercury

Related Topics: