Dinesh Patel, a representative of Nulane Investment, is expected to appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court to face charges related to a Gupta family corruption matter.

The National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate spokesperson, Sindisiwe Seboka, said Patel will face charges of procurement fraud involving R25 million which was allegedly paid out by the Free State Department of Agriculture (FSDoA) to Nulane Investment 204 (PTY) LTD.

Patel joins 16 other accused in the matter, together with companies that face charges of fraud and money laundering in relation to a multi-million rand feasibility study that was contracted to Nulane Investment by the Free State government. The focus of the study was to explore the likelihood of the success of the Mohoma Mobung agriculture project in the province.

“Nulane Investments, however, had no employees on its books and in fact subcontracted Deloitte Ltd to produce the report. Deloitte was paid R1.5 million for the work,” Seboka said.

“The only change made to the Deloitte report was to identify Paras diary as a suitable implementing partner for the development of a milk processing plant in Vrede,” she said.

Patel has been charged along with the owner of Nulane Investment, his brother-in-law, Iqbal Sharma, former Free State head of Department for Rural Development (FSDoRD), Peter Thabethe; former head of FSDoA, Limakatso Moorosi; and former FSDoA Chief Financial Officer, Seipati Dhlamini.

Sharma appeared in court last week for his bail application, at which the NPA’s ID had argued for the state that he was a flight risk. He had allegedly moved millions of rands abroad over a period of several years and could be viewed as a global citizen, the ID had argued.

They are charged together with three companies, Nulane Investment 204 (Pty) Ltd (owned and controlled by Sharma), Wone Management (PTY) LTD, Pragat Investment (Pty) LTD, Islandsite Investments Pty Ltd.

The balance of accused listed in the charge sheet, which include members of the Gupta family, are not currently in South Africa.