Johannesburg - Prominent private investigator Paul O’ Sullivan has been implicated in a documents saga seemingly aimed at discrediting the chairperson of South African Airways, Dudu Myeni.
Independent Media can reveal that O’Sullivan is at the centre of a forensic investigation into attempts to use fake documents to link Myeni to overseas bank accounts worth millions of euros.
The ploy was exposed this week when O’Sullivan made serious claims against Myeni to the SAA board, management and their lawyers, and some state agencies. These included that she was illegally benefiting from an SAA tender and the Gauteng e-tolls contract.
The fake documents scandal comes as the embattled state airline implements its latest turn-around strategy aimed at changing its financial fortunes. As part of the turnaround, the carrier has abandoned strategic but loss-making international routes, such as those between Johannesburg and Beijing, China.
The information, allegedly obtained by O’Sullivan from an informer, was apparently circulated to selected journalists and high ranking members of government departments. Among the documents are forged bank statements and a surveillance request purportedly from Interpol, the international police agency. The documents sought to 'expose' Myeni’s ill-gotten riches, supposedly stashed in secret accounts in French and Austrian banks.
O’Sullivan today admitted to Independent Media that he had indeed tried to use the fake documents against Myeni, but said he had been misled by his sources.
Independent Media is also in possession of documents that show O’Sullivan later offered a sum of money to Myeni as an apology for having been involved in the campaign. In the correspondence the fraud investigator appears concerned that Myeni could bankrupt him in a possible defamation suit.
He refused to comment on the money offer he made to Myeni and SAA, saying he had apologised and was cooperating with the investigation into the origin of the fake documents.
In an e-mail distributed by O’Sullivan after the plot was unmasked, he claims that the documents were produced by “a third force hard at play, with its sole intentions to cast aspersions on the Chairmain of SAA”. He claimed competing interests in the aviation industry were likely behind this “third force”.
Miyeni did not indicate whether she intended to take any action against O'Sullivan and the originators of the plot.
Read the full story in The Sunday Independent tomorrow.
Sunday Independent