Image of

A RWANDAN businessman living under house arrest in the UK saw his R60million fraud trial end in East London yesterday when he promised to pay back R57m to avoid jail.

Tycoon Tribert Ayabatwa Rujugiro was also given a R250m fine, suspended for five years.

It brings to a close the protracted prosecution of Rujugiro’s company Mastermind Tobacco SA (Pty) Ltd which faced numerous counts of fraud and tax evasion.

After negotiations between lawyer’s representing Rujugiro and the State, Mastermind Tobacco entered a guilty plea and undertook to repay a balance of R57 million.

In March, the company had already paid R3m to the South African Revenue Service (Sars) in anticipation of the guilty plea agreement.

The Rwandan politics website Fdu-Rwanda.org describes Rujugiro as a presidential adviser to their country’s leader, Paul Kagame.

The website says he owns or has stakes in numerous businesses in Africa and the Middle East, which include the tobacco, construction, real estate and banking sectors.

Rujugiro’s Blog, a site presumably run by the businessman himself, claims that he is a shareholder of Rwanda Investment Group, a private investment company which sank 27.2m (about R220m) into a venture in Rwanda to extract methane gas from Lake Kivu .

Rujugiro was arrested in London last year on the fraud charges relating to Mastermind but was not extradited and instead was placed under house arrest.

Yesterday in the East London High Court Judge David Van Zyl imposed a R250m fine on the company but suspended it for five years on condition that the balance was paid.

This was also on condition that the company was not convicted by a criminal court of any contravention of the VAT Act, the Customs and Excise Act or fraud during this period.

Representing the company was Rujugiro’s son Richard, who confirmed the guilty plea.

The charges included 25 counts of fraud relating to non- payment of excise duties, 25 charges of illegally exporting goods from the customs and excise warehouse and six charges relating to the non-payment of VAT .

The company passed local cigarette sales off as exports in order to get a VAT zero-rating. Cigarettes distributed locally were also under-declared to Sars which resulted in the revenue service receiving less in excise duties and VAT.

Products manufactured in South Africa and destined for export are VAT zero-rated. This means no tax is payable to Sars in respect of sales to foreign customers and the products are also exempt from South African excise taxes.

According to the guilty plea an amount of R27m should be paid within seven days from June 5 and the balance of R30m must be paid in instalments of R2.5m a month, starting on or before July 1.

The final payment will be paid on June 1 next year.

Mastermind manufactured brands such as Yes, Forum and Legends cigarettes in Wilsonia. After the proceedings State advocate Johan Roothman made a call to one of his colleagues to alert authorities in London that Rujugiro was now a free man.

Meanwhile his son Richard told the Daily Dispatch that they had decided to plead as the case would have dragged on longer.

“I think four years has been long for all of us. Everyone needed to move on with their lives,” Richard said.

The State has dropped charges against Johannesburg- based Twinkle Star Carriers and its owner Radesh Mahabeer, who transported the export cigarettes.

Roothman said the State had also provisionally withdrawn charges against the company’s former import-export manager, Jenny Putter of Beacon Bay, and financial manager Pascale Maria Wiehahn of Nahoon. - By THANDUXOLO JIKA, High Court Reporter