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Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir arrived in SA four years ago and set up a network involving strip club owners, gold and diamond dealers, hoodlums and top cops until, that is, the body count started to rise.
O’Sullivan claims that at least five people who were murdered are linked to Krejcir and the Jackie Selebi corruption trial. He said the murders started with the death of Kevin Trytsman in 2009.
“Uwe Gemballa who was murdered in February 2010, then we had Lolly Jackson who was murdered in May 2010, then we have Chris Kouremetis who was murdered in September or October 2010 [and] then we had Cyril Beeka…” O’Sullivan said.
It is understood Gembella was involved in a deal with Krejcir and Beeka involving sports cars being used to smuggle cash into South Africa.
Trytsman was a self-styled Umkhonto we Sizwe agent who stored weapons and vehicles for the ANC in the 1980s. He was arrested in November 1990 for possession of illegal weapons and stolen vehicles and later granted amnesty by the TRC. In November 1999 his company, South African Investigation Service Group, was contracted without a tender by then deputy minister of environmental affairs and tourism Rejoice Mabudafhasi to investigate allegations of corruption in the fishing industry and earned a fee of R558000 for 31 days’ work.
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Krejcir: four years of murder, sleaze and mayhem
Mar 26, 2011 11:42 PM
Werner Swart & Sashni Pather
Sunday Times
Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir arrived in SA four years ago and set up a network involving strip club owners, gold and diamond dealers, hoodlums and top cops until, that is, the body count started to rise.
APRIL 21 2007: Radovan Krejcir arrives at OR Tambo International Airport from the Seychelles.
- He is arrested on an Interpol notice despite having a false passport, but is granted bail.
- For more than two years he remains mostly under the radar, setting up an elaborate network of contacts.
SEPTEMBER 2007: Krejcir lodges an application for refugee status.
- This application is turned down a year later, although Krejcir launches other court actions to be granted political asylum.
DECEMBER 4 2009: Private investigator and information peddler Kevin Trytsman is shot dead by his attorney, George Michaelides, in Bedfordview.
- Michaelides claims he acted in self defence, but is charged and released on bail. The case continues.
- It emerges that Trytsman worked for Krejcir at some stage, but the two fell out.
- George Smith, the man accused of shooting Lolly Jackson, allegedly "congratulates" Michaelides and tells him Krejcir also wants to do so.
FEBRUARY 8 2010: German supercar tuner Uwe Gemballa disappears after arriving in South Africa to set up a local franchise of his business.
- Krejcir was to provide funding for the project, although it is alleged Gemballa was not told of his involvement.
- Police say they are investigating Gemballa's disappearance.
MAY 3 2010: Charismatic strip club boss Lolly Jackson is killed at a house in Edenglen, Edenvale.
- His "shooter" George Smith (Louca) goes to the Harbour Cafe straight afterwards where he tells Krejcir he had just killed Jackson.
- Smith phones crime intelligence boss Joey Mabasa to tell him what he had done. Mabasa and his cops arrive too late and Smith disappears.
- Krejcir claims Smith phones him regularly and offers his assistance to police.
- Jackson and Krejcir were close friends and were implicated in a money-laundering scheme.
SEPTEMBER 28 2010: Uwe Gemballa's body is discovered in a shallow grave in Lotus Gardens, Pretoria.
- The Sunday Times reveals that one of Gemballa's killers, Thabiso Mpye, was sentenced to 20 years. His swift conviction forms part of a plea bargain in which he agrees to testify against others involved in the murder.
OCTOBER 10 2010: Businessman Christopher Couremetis is shot dead at a wedding at the Cradle of Humankind.
- No arrests have been made in connection with his murder, although information now suggests he was somehow caught up in a web involving associates of Krejcir.
- Couremetis was at one stage a neighbour of convicted druglord Glenn Agliotti - another "business" partner of Krejcir.
MARCH 16 2011: Urologist Marian Tupy pleads guilty to charges of fraud. Tupy admits to falsifying medical records to show Krejcir suffers from cancer. He receives a suspended sentence for turning state witness against Krejcir.
- An arrest warrant for Krejcir is obtained.
MARCH 21 2011: Cyril Beeka is killed in a professional hit in Cape Town.
- Beeka had links with both intelligence circles and the underworld and was once a close friend of Krejcir before a fight soured their relationship.
MARCH 22 2011: Krejcir's home is raided by the Hawks and it becomes official that he is wanted for questioning in connection with Gemballa's murder.
- Police also say he is a prime suspect in the Jackson matter.
MARCH 24 2011: After three days of evading police capture, Krejcir finally hands himself over. He is expected to appear in court tomorrow (Monday) accused of fraud relating to the Tupy matter.
» » » » [Sunday Times]
» » [M&G: Mobster at the gates: The ugly saga of Radovan Krejcir]
» » [CBB: Kevin Trytsman, 50, shot dead at Bedfordview attorney office]
» » [SundayWorld: Trytsman Gunned down over R36m deal]
The murders: Five bodies and counting
Sam Sole, Stefaans Brümmer and Craig McKune
Mail & Guardian
Mar 25 2011
Several of Radovan Krejcir's associates have died violent deaths in the past 15 months.
The bodies of people associated with Radovan Krejcir have been piling up since the Czech fugitive entered South Africa on a false passport in 2007.
The list of identified victims numbers five (though there are rumours of at least one other) and began with the shooting, in December 2009, of Kevin Trytsman.
Trytsman
Trytsman was a private investigator who liked to boast of an association with the National Intelligence Agency and drove a black van with the registration "NIA?001?GP".
He made a living from information peddling and claiming to be able to assist people with "legal difficulties". Several sources have told the M&G that Krejcir spent some R500 000 getting "help" from Trytsman, but with apparently unsatisfactory results.
Trytsman was shot at the office of his attorney, George Michaelides. However, according to an affidavit prepared by Paul O'Sullivan (see “The Nemesis” below), Michaelides received a strange visit after the shooting.
O'Sullivan wrote: "Michaelides … advised me, inter alia, that after he had shot Trytsman, which he alleges he did in self defence, George Smith walked into his offices and congratulated him. George Smith [whose real name is George Louka] subsequently invited him to lunch with Krejcir, who wanted to show his ‘appreciation’ for the killing of Trytsman."
George Smith is the Cyprus-born fugitive who worked for Krejcir and is wanted for questioning in the murder of former Teazers' boss Lolly Jackson.
Gemballa
Uwe Gemballa was kidnapped on his arrival at OR Tambo International Airport on February 8 last year.
He apparently believed he was meeting a businessman named Jerome Safi to discuss Safi opening a franchise of the Gemballa sports car business. Safi was, in fact, working for Krejcir at the time, something he apparently did not disclose to Gemballa.
However, Safi did not go the airport to meet his guest. Instead, he sent his girlfriend, Tenielle Dippenaar, and his uncle David.
According to a source who has seen the airport surveillance tapes, they did not go to the international arrivals area to wait for Gemballa. Instead, Dippenaar simply walked past international arrivals twice some time after Gemballa’s plane had landed. When he emerged shortly afterwards, he was met by a man identified as Garlond Holworthy.
Holworthy (32) was jailed in December for an unrelated house break-in and has, to date, not been charged with the Gemballa murder.
Another accomplice, Thabiso Mpye, who pleaded guilty to the murder, described to police how Gemballa was handed over to two other men, named Kizzer and Madala. He said Gemballa was taken to a house -- identified by police as being rented by Krejcir’s business manager, Ivan Savov -- where he was later suffocated. Savov has claimed he was out of the country at the time and has denied Gemballa was killed at his home.
The M&G reported last week how police had linked a cellphone used to phone Gemballa's wife to pay-as-you-go vouchers purchased on behalf of a Krejcir associate, Michael Arsiotis.
A waitress described how she had been sent to buy the vouchers by Arsiotis, who was sitting with Krejcir, Safi, Smith and two unidentified men.
Jackson
Lolly Jackson was murdered in May 2010, allegedly by George Smith, who is said to be in hiding in Cyprus.
Earlier evidence obtained by O'Sullivan disclosed a money-laundering scheme entered into between Krejcir and Jackson. In an affidavit O'Sullivan says he shared information about the laundering operation with General Joey Mabasa, then head of crime intelligence in Gauteng.
The M&G later revealed that Krejcir's wife and Mabasa's wife had set up a company together.
Kouremetis
Johannesburg businessman Chris Kouremetis, who was murdered in October 2010, has been linked to Krejcir by intelligence sources who briefed the M&G on condition of anonymity.
Kouremetis was gunned down after a wedding at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in Gauteng in a hit that was ascribed to a drug deal gone sour. There is, however, no evidence linking Krejcir to the killing.
Beeka
Cyril Beeka played a key role in Krejcir's life in South Africa, although it appears that mistrust had recently developed between the two men.
Beeka initially served as Krejcir's security consultant, but later the two set up plans to go into gold trading and a gold refinery business together.
Beeka and Krejcir shared a love of fast cars and motorbikes and would race their "toys" at Kyalami racetrack, several sources have confirmed.
It is also alleged that Beeka introduced Krejcir to President Jacob Zuma's son, Duduzane, who shared an enthusiasm for fast bikes.
Contacted on Thursday morning, Duduzane asked for questions to be emailed to him. The New Age managing editor and Gupta family spokesman, Gary Naidoo, replied on his behalf: "Mr Cyril Beeka has met a violent and untimely death and I do not wish to make any comments on the deceased. May his family obtain all the strength and courage during this difficult time."
Latterly the relationship between Krejcir and Beeka had soured, notably after an incident at Beeka’s birthday party in Cape Town in November.
A source close to Beeka told the M&G: "It was Cyril’s birthday and Radovan got a bit drunk. Everyone was a bit drunk. [Radovan] started to push the bouncers around and Cyril asked him to calm down, but he wouldn’t and he got a klap. It wasn’t a heavy klap, just an educational blow, but it didn’t go down well, and that’s about as far as that went."
Cape Town club owner Jerome Booysen has confirmed that Beeka was returning from a meeting with him in Belhar when he was gunned down. He says he and Beeka were on good terms.
Intelligence sources claim Krejcir met one of Booysen's business associates, Mark Lifman, about three weeks ago. Lifman, without being given the reason for the M&G's call, said: "I cannot render any comment. I have been overseas and I am trying to pick up on what has been going on. I wasn’t a friend of [Beeka’s], so I can’t comment."
Asked about Krejcir, he said: "I am going to give you the same comment. I’m not prepared to make any comment. I need to pick up the pieces and I’m consulting an attorney. I have been called by about seven journalists."
The nemesis: Number two on the hit-list
It is little wonder that Paul O'Sullivan was number two on the alleged hit-list discovered at Radovan Krejcir's Bedfordview mansion.
If there is a scandal around the Krejcir case it is that but for the efforts of forensic investigator Paul O'Sullivan the Czech would probably have obtained political asylum in South Africa by now.
Following his central involvement in the investigation of former police commissioner Jackie Selebi, O'Sullivan has been pivotal in bringing forward witnesses and evidence against Krejcir.
- It was O’Sullivan who torpedoed Krejcir's bid to bamboozle the Refugee Appeal Board into giving him asylum because of an alleged political plot against him in the Czech republic, which is seeking to extradite him.
O'Sullivan sent the board -- which operates in secret -- a detailed affidavit setting out the evidence against Krecjir just before the hearing was scheduled at the beginning of February, forcing Krejcir's lawyer to apply for an open-ended postponement.- It was O'Sullivan who procured an affidavit from, and the eventual co-operation of, Dr Marian Tupy, the Czech-born urologist who had been pressured into providing Krejcir with a false cancer diagnosis. Tupy's agreement to testify in the R4.5-million insurance fraud flowing from Krejcir's fake terminal illness appears to have been the blow that led Krejcir to panic and act on his "hit list".
It was Tupy's affidavit that first alleged a direct link between Krejcir and the murder of German businessman Uwe Gemballa, and it was another affidavit, obtained by O'Sullivan from gold dealer Juan Meyer, that set out the allegation that Krejcir had promised a "surprise" for Gemballa after a disagreement about money the German allegedly owed Krejcir.- It was O'Sullivan who tirelessly pushed the Hawks and prosecuting authority to act against Krejcir.
- It was O'Sullivan’s pursuit of Selebi that led him to Krejcir, perhaps not suprisingly, given that key players in the Selebi saga, such as Glenn Agliotti and the Kebble shooters (Mikey Schultz, Nigel McGurk and Faizel Smith) attached themselves to Krejcir in the aftermath of the Selebi trial.
In a statement submitted to the Refugee Appeal Board, O'Sullivan explained how he had come upon Krejcir.
During his Selebi investigation he had come up against Kevin Trytsman, a private investigator who claimed to work for the intelligence services. Trytsman appeared to be running an interference operation against at least two witnesses in the Selebi case and so O'Sullivan put him under the spotlight.
"By October 2009 I had met with Trytsman and advised him I had enough to have him arrested. He was apologetic and agreed to give me further information if I left him alone," his statement to the board said.
It was Trytsman who then provided information about the relationship between Krejcir and Lolly Jackson, which led O'Sullivan to banker Alekos Panayi and the money-laundering scheme involving Jackson, Krejcir and George Smith, aka Louka, who acted as a front man for Krejcir.
Two months later Trytsman was shot dead in the offices of his attorney, George Michaelides.
It was also O'Sullivan's success with the Selebi case that prompted Tupy to contact him, when Tupy began to be actively afraid of his patient.
O'Sullivan’s eight-year crusade has cost him dearly.
It began when he was suspended and later fired from his job as head of security at Johannesburg International Airport, apparently following the intervention of Selebi.
The Irish expatriate's determination to find out why led him to probe Selebi, leading him to Glenn Agliotti and the murder of Brett Kebble.
From a senior executive position and a brace of smart cars, O'Sullivan has had to move his family out of the country for their safety, drives a rented car and relies on informal corporate backing for his anti-crime campaign.
-- Sam Sole, Stefaans Brümmer & Craig McKune. The M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism, supported by M&G Media and the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, produced this story. All views are the centre’s. www.amabhungane.co.za.
» » » » [Mail & Guardian/Ambabhungane]
Gemballa Murder Fugitive Claims Hit
16 March 2011
Julian Rademeyer, Media24 Investigations
Johannesburg - Fugitive Czech millionaire Radovan Krejcir allegedly boasted to his private doctor that he was behind the kidnapping and murder of German supercar trader Uwe Gemballa who disappeared on a business trip to South Africa last year.
In a statement, Dr Marian Tupy - a urologist - said Krejcir visited his consulting rooms on February 18 last year, 10 days after Gemballa disappeared from OR Tambo International airport.
Tupy – who on Wednesday entered into a plea agreement with State prosecutors - asked him about reports linking him to Gemballa and, according to the statement, Krejcir "smiled".
"I then asked him what had happened to Gemballa and he then put his hand to his throat and drew his hand across his throat, making a cutting sound...and then pointed at his... chest and said, 'It was me'.
"I realised he was a very dangerous man indeed."
Now details have emerged of at least two other suspects linked to the crime.
Gemballa's kidnapping and murder remains shrouded in mystery. His decomposing body, wrapped in black plastic and duct tape, was unearthed in a shallow grave in Lotus Gardens in September last year.
To date only one suspect has been convicted of his murder. Thabiso Mpye, 28, who led police to the body, was arrested, convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment - all within 24 hours in October.
Two other suspects
Today, Media24 Investigations can reveal that two other suspects - named by Mpye - have been behind bars since last year and have yet to be charged or stand trial for the murder.
One of them, Garlond Holworthy, 32, was jailed in December for an unrelated house break-in and has - to date - not been charged with the Gemballa murder.
Another, Kagiso Joseph Linken, has been charged with a robbery and murder stemming from a heist in Langlaagte in June last year and the killing of a policeman.
He remains in custody.
Holworthy's advocate, Marius Bouwer, confirmed last week that he was aware his client had been implicated in the Gemballa case.
"I know about the allegations that they apparently want to charge him with that but until now, they haven't charged him."
He said his client was arrested in connection with the house robbery case in June last year, five months after Gemballa vanished, and is currently serving a sentence at a Krugersdorp correctional facility.
Torture allegations
Media24 Investigations has also established that Holworthy's father, Reginald Holworthy, assisted Linken's family to lodge complaints that he had been tortured by members of the police's organised crime unit with the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD).
ICD spokesperson, Moses Dlamini, said the case was still under investigation and that allegations had been made by Linken that he had been tortured at "multiple police stations" following his arrest in June last year on charges of murder and robbery.
"At this stage , it is not possible to say clearly what happened in this case," Dlamini said.
Linken's attorney, Paul Leisher, confirmed last Wednesday that his client was still in custody.
"I haven't brought a bail application at this point and I have not received a formal charge sheet," he said.
Hawks spokesperson, Colonel McIntosh Polela, confirmed this week that neither Holworthy or Linken had been charged in connection with the Gemballa murder, adding that they were not "yet" linked to the crime.
"We won’t comment on their involvement until they are charged," Polela said.
Media24 Investigations also understands that Linken and Mpye, who lived in the same street in Atteridgeville near Pretoria, had known each for more than a decade.
More than enough money
The exact details of Gemballa's last moments have never been revealed.
He arrived in South Africa to meet Jerome Safi, a close associate of Krejcir's, with a view to opening a franchise of his business in South Africa.
In interviews with Media24 Investigations last year, Safi confirmed: "I'm the guy who told Gemballa to come to this country."
He said Krejcir and murdered Teazers stripclub boss Lolly Jackson had offered to "put up the money" if Safi successfully negotiated to open a Gemballa franchise in South Africa.
But, according to Safi, he never met Gemballa and he has denied any involvement in the kidnapping.
"For what am I going to kidnap this man...To this day people are running around saying me and Radovan kidnapped the German. Radovan has more than enough money. He doesn't need to kidnap anyone for anything.
"The guy basically got here and disappeared. I never met the man."
Media24 Investigations understands that Mpye identified Holworthy, Linken and three other men in the kidnapping and murder.
The German was allegedly picked up at OR Tambo International Airport by Holworthy and later bundled at gunpoint into a car.
Little accident
According to Mpye's plea agreement, Gemballa was taken to a house at 64 1st Avenue, Edenvale which is rented by a Bulgarian businessman and Krejcir associate, Ivan Savov.
There he was held for several days, during which time he called his wife to say he had been involved in a “little accident” and wanted her to transfer €1m to a bank account.
Media24 Investigations understands that the conspirators bought spades, picks and gloves at a Builder's Warehouse and dug a hole in old grave yard in Lotus Gardens.
Gemballa was tied up on a bed in a child's bedroom at the house in Edenvale when they came to kill him.
The men apparently picked him up, laid him down on a sheet of plastic in passageway, pulled a plastic bag over his head and wound duct tape around it again and again.
One of the men then sat on his chest to force the air out of his lungs, suffocating him.
The corpse, wrapped in plastic, was then buried.
» » » » [News 24]
Beeka exposed as SA spy
Mar 26, 2011 11:42 PM
Werner Swart, Sashni Pather, Stephan Hofstatter,
Mzilikazi wa Afrika, Shanaaz Eggington,
Sunday Times
Startling evidence has emerged that murdered underworld kingpin Cyril Beeka was an intelligence operative working for the South African government.
This has blown the lid on a spy-versus-spy drama within the country's intelligence agencies that pits national police boss General Bheki Cele against those loyal to his predecessor, Jackie Selebi.
This week, the turf war between the police's crime intelligence unit and the Hawks blew into the open following Beeka's assassination and the dramatic manhunt and arrest of Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir.
The Sunday Times has established that Beeka was part of what is known as a 25(2A) operation, a section of the Criminal Procedure Act relating to undercover operations.
It stipulates that "any law enforcement officer, an official of the state or ... authorised" person engaged in criminal activities is protected from arrest and prosecution.
This may explain why Beeka never spent a day behind bars despite being arrested for alleged racketeering and extortion on several occasions.
Beeka has now emerged as a central figure in the drama. And the Sunday Times can reveal that the primary suspect, Krejcir, listened to explosive phone recordings of Hawks investigators discussing the case against him.
Just two weeks ago, he was visited by senior crime intelligence officers, who gave him the recordings. They included conversations between forensic investigator Paul O'Sullivan and Hawks boss Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya .
A source in crime intelligence said this week: "Every time the Hawks discussed their strategy against Krejcir and information crucial to his case, guys from crime intel were listening in. These recordings made their way to Krejcir, so he could stay one step ahead."
O' Sullivan confirmed on Friday that he was aware of this.
Hawks spokesman Colonel McIntosh Polela, however, confirmed claims that Krejcir's money had bought him favours within the SAPS and the Hawks.
"I said that he has a bottomless pit of cash that he's extended to people he wants favours from, and that includes some of our members," said Polela.
He said he was "not at liberty to divulge" Beeka's intelligence-gathering work.
Krejcir has previously evaded arrest despite being directly linked - in a number of Sunday Times exposés - to several high-profile murders, including strip club boss Lolly Jackson and German tycoon Uwe Gemballa.
Just last week, Krejcir's doctor, Marian Tupy, was given a suspended sentence for fraud after he falsified medical records saying that Krejcir had cancer. Krejcir was paid out over R4-million on a life policy with Liberty Life as a result.
The Sunday Times can today also reveal that:
- Krejcir is being held at the Johannesburg central police's high-risk detention centre after his arrest on Thursday and is due to appear in court tomorrow;
- Beeka's connections to the murky world of drugs saw him interacting with foreign intelligence agencies, including the FBI and Scotland Yard; and
- He was once a low-level informer for the ANC's armed wing, but some party bosses were uncomfortable as he was a "drug pedlar".
Cele's spokesman, Major-General Nonkululeko Mbatha, refused to be drawn into the allegations, saying: "There is a process and investigation under way and every possible avenue is being probed."
Two of crime intelligence's top-ranking officers, Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli and Major-General Joey Mabasa, have been specifically fingered for their alleged involvement in the tapping of phones.
Mabaso declined to comment and Mdluli could not be reached. But several sources in the intelligence community say attacks on Mabaso and Mdluli could have been orchestrated to purge the police of senior officers seen to be close to former police commissioner Selebi.
Two senior crime intelligence operatives recently told the Sunday Times there were attempts to link Mdluli and Mabaso to crimes based on fabricated evidence.
"There's a war going on in crime and counter-intelligence, but I think they're trying to implicate the wrong people," said one. "The real culprits are not being acted against."
Two former operatives still close to intelligence structures also found the accusations implausible.
With regard to the hit list allegedly found at Krejcir's home, one of them said: "I can tell you now that the hit list is rubbish. How on earth can someone have a hit list with only four people that he knows very well?"
Another senior crime intelligence source said the "same people who investigated Jackie (Selebi)" are investigating Mabaso.
"General Sibiya, Paul's (O'Sullivan's) friend, is the same man who investigated Selebi with O'Sullivan. They are saying, 'Selebi is corrupt, Joey must also be corrupt, let's cook stories and plant them in the media.' This is not an investigation, but a fishing expedition."
Beeka, who died in a hail of bullets on Monday night, has always been described as an underworld kingpin. But sources now say he was, in fact, an undercover operative in the world of drugs and contraband.
"Remember that, in this dirty business, you don't get your information in the church," a source said. "If Cyril was himself involved (in criminal activity), it would have been small fry compared to the big fish he would infiltrate."
O'Sullivan has been basking in the glory of Krejcir's arrest - even addressing the media from Krejcir's favourite restaurant on Friday night. He blasted police intelligence, calling it a "third force".
» » » » [SunTimes]
Lolly turned on Krejcir – and died
2011-03-27 10:00
Julian Rademeyer, City Press
Police consider Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir a “prime suspect” in the murder of strip club boss Lolly Jackson, who was shot dead in May last year.
City Press has established that shortly before his death, Jackson was approached to give evidence against Krejcir as part of an investigation into a multimillion-rand money-laundering scheme.
Police believe that Jackson may have been killed to silence him and that the alleged trigger man, George Louka, also known as George Smith, was part of a wider conspiracy.
Krejcir, who vanished for nearly two days just before a police raid on his house, handed himself over to police early on Friday morning to face charges of fraud.
Police are also investigating allegations that Krejcir was tipped off about the money-laundering investigation by the former head of police crime intelligence in Gauteng, General Joey Mabasa.
Last week City Press revealed that the Hawks were investigating allegations that Krejcir had “bought” protection from top crime intelligence officers.
Hawks investigators claimed that their phones were being tapped, allegedly by crime intelligence officers, and that the information was being passed back to Krejcir.
This week two former business associates of Jackson, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, told City Press that Jackson was being offered a section 204 indemnity in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act in exchange for his testimony against Krejcir and other alleged members of the money-laundering syndicate.
Jackson was due to be arrested on money-laundering charges just four days before his death.
The arrest never took place and Jackson was later shot four times, allegedly by Louka, who van-ished after a late-night phone call to Mabasa in which he supposedly confessed to the crime.
In an interview with City Press this week, crime- buster Paul O’Sullivan confirmed that he sent a key affidavit on the money-laundering scheme to Mabasa on February 1 last year.
O’Sullivan, acting as intermediary, had a number of meetings with Jackson in which he showed him evidence implicating him in the money-laundering scheme which is believed to have siphoned more than R10 million out of South Africa.
O’Sullivan was on the verge of convincing Jackson to turn state witness.
According to O’Sullivan’s affidavit, Mabasa had agreed during meetings that discussions and documents “would be treated as top secret and .?.?. for his eyes only”.
“I have subsequently found out that he also telephoned Krejcir after that meeting and briefed him,” O’Sullivan wrote.
Mabasa was suddenly transferred from crime intelligence in Gauteng to police headquarters in Pretoria last year after Krejcir told Media24 Investigations in an interview that he regarded Mabasa as a man he could turn to “for help in a difficult situation”.
The Mail & Guardian also revealed last year that Mabasa’s wife, Dorcas, had been a co-director – along with Krejcir’s wife, Katerina Krejcirova – of a company called Radlochron.
Contacted on Friday, Mabasa said: “I don’t want to comment on rubbish.” He said only that he had last seen Krejcir in April last year.
One of Jackson’s former associates said on Friday that he believed Jackson met Louka and Krejcir on the night he was killed, to tell Krejcir he “wanted out” of the money-laundering scheme.
“From what we understand, George wasn’t the one who shot (Jackson) and George wasn’t alone that night,” one of the associates said.
“As much as Lolly was a big, strong man, I can tell you he would have rolled (and become a witness) in the face of losing everything he had spent his life working for. I think investigators identified him as the weak link.”
» » » » [City Press]
More woes for the shady tycoon
Radovan Krejcir's life on the run takes a serious dip
Mar 26, 2011 11:42 PM
Sashni Pather, Sunday Times
He says he is the son of one of the richest women in the Czech Republic - printing mogul Nadeza Krejcirova - and claims his father, Lambert, was murdered and had his body dissolved in acid in 2002, for political reasons.
And this is why Radovan Krejcir, who says he holds a master's degree in economics, has done nothing but try to escape the authorities for the last six years.
In 2005, as police in the Czech capital of Prague swooped on his palatial villa, the 41-year-old abandoned the multimillion-euro house in the city's elite suburb of Cernosic, claiming a "political conspiracy" against his family.
In 2007, when the heat got too much in the Seychelles where he had sought - or, as some say, bought - refuge, Krejcir again fled.
This time the father of two travelled by yacht to Madagascar, where he boarded a flight to South Africa.
He was on Interpol's wanted list and - although he was travelling under the name Egbert Jules Savy - was arrested on arrival at OR Tambo International Airport on April 21, 2007, and released on R1-million bail.He launched a bid for political asylum, claiming he was being persecuted in his own country.
When asked why he chose South Africa, Krejcir said: "Because this country has the best constitution in the world."
While in detention he landed up in a cell with George Louca, a Cypriot immigrant who introduced Krejcir to the South Africa's underworld.
Louca was hired by Krejcir and last year became a prime suspect in the murder of strip club boss Lolly Jackson, who was gunned down at a house in Johannesburg in May.
Jackson had access to cash - something the Czech fugitive found himself scrambling for with his assets frozen in various countries due to the Interpol notice that he was sought on charges of fraud and kidnapping in the Czech Republic .
Krejcir later met controversial security boss Cyril Beeka, who was assassinated in Cape Town this week. The two became close, and Beeka on occasion facilitated Krejcir's meetings with journalists.
Krejcir lives in a R20-million, four-bedroom mansion in Kloof Street in Bedfordview, east of Johannesburg.
A glossy calender at the house portrays him and his wife, Katerina Krejcirova, as a Vanity Fair cover couple.
His garages hold a multimillion-rand collection of cars, including a Porsche 911, Lamborghini Mercielago. Ferrari 430 Spider and Mercedes CL 63 AMG.
It was in fact through a shared passion for cars that he, Jackson and the late German supercar specialist Uwe Gemballa came to know each other.
The friendship with Jackson was handy as Krejcir's lifestyle cost money he didn't always have and Jackson needed to get cash out of the country illegally.
The pair, with the help of a banker Alekos Panyani who facilitated a series of illicit financial transactions, were allegedly involved in a R9-million money-laundering scheme .
When Jackson was killed, Krejcir showed the Sunday Times a business plan drawn up for an R80-million deal for him to buy Jackson's Teazers clubs and assets.
Eight days after Jackson gave Krejcir R2-million, he was shot dead
Two days later, Krejcirtold the Sunday Times: "George (Louca) walked into the (Johannesburg restaurant) Harbour (Cafe) and told me he had shot Jackson. He bought a packet of Camel filter and left."
Louca remains on the run.
Another murder that put Krejcir in the spotlight is that of Gemballa.
Months before Jackson died, he and Krejcir were in talks over a Gemballa franchise deal. A Krejcir associate, businessman Jerome Safi, was also involved.
In February last year, three days after Gemballa e-mailed Safi, Gemballa travelled to South Africa - and vanished the day he arrived at OR Tambo International.
His body was found in a shallow grave in Atteridegville, Pretoria, months later.
He had been held captive for days at the home of another Krejcir associate, Bulgarian national Ivan Savov, who claimed he was out of the country at the time.
Krejcir said at the time he met Gemballa in 1994 in Stuttgart, Germany, and, although he was encouraged to back a local Gemballa deal, "nothing came of it".
He has repeatedly denied being involved in the murder.
Beeka and Krejcir were business partners and would often be seen drinking Jagermeister together.
When police raided Krejcir's house on Tuesday night, they said they found a "hit list" of four names, including that of Beeka .
Speaking about his chequered past, Krejcir said the charges in the Czech Republic were political and "trumped up".
In his submission for refugee status in South Africa, he mentioned his mother's printing business, saying it was the "largest of its kind in Europe".
According to media reports from the Czech Republic, Krejcir's 63-year-old mother was the country's 10th richest woman last year, with assets worth R120-million.
Yet it is over a R4.5-million fraudulent insurance claim that her son was arrested in the early hours of Friday morning.
His urologist, Dr Marian Tupy, pleaded guilty to fraud last week for falsifying medical documents stating Krejcir had cancer. Liberty Life paid out on the policy.
Krejcir also runs a chain of pawn shops that trade in gold and diamonds in Bedfordview.
» » » » [Sunday Times]
» » [Eyewitness News: Sars seizes Krejcir’s assets]
» » [SunTimes: Lolly Jackson not afraid of taking risks]
» » [Seychelles Weekly: Radovan Krejcir a free man in South Africa!]
» » [Seychelles Weekly: Radovan Krejcir – The latest by popular demand]
Krejcir scoffs at ‘Mafia boss’ claims
August 29, 2010
Mafia Today & News 24
Fugitive Czech billionaire Radovan Krejcir scoffs at suggestions that he is “some big Mafia boss from the Eastern Bloc” and says he has “absolutely nothing to hide”.
Breaking his silence ahead of a renewed bid by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to have him extradited to the Czech Republic, Krejcir told Rapport he was the victim of “fabricated stories” and a “dirty plan” concocted to “get me deported from this country, either legally or illegally”.
He says that his record in the Czech Republic is “clean” and claims the country’s Constitutional Court has overturned a prison sentenced imposed on him. Despite this, the Czech authorities still want him extradited.
Krejcir has accused “elements” in the NPA and police, Czech intelligence operatives and prominent whistleblower Paul O’Sullivan – who describes Krejcir as the head of an “evil trans-national crime syndicate” that “wants to control the underworld in South Africa” – of conspiring against him.
He claims O’Sullivan is in the pay of the Czech intelligence services and “stands to benefit by $500 000” if Krejcir is successfully extradited. O’Sullivan on Saturday laughed off the claim.
Wealth and power
Krejcir – who was sentenced in absentia in the Czech Republic to six-and-a-half years imprisonment for tax fraud and reportedly investigated on charges of conspiracy to murder, counterfeiting, extortion and abduction – is a flamboyant man, given to ostentatious displays of wealth and power.
In recent weeks his links to a coterie of controversial South African businessmen and underworld figures has been in the spotlight.
He arrived in South Africa in 2007 and was arrested at OR Tambo international airport on an Interpol “red notice” while travelling with a Seychelles passport, issued in the name Egbert Jules Savy. An application for his extradition was unsuccessful.
Krejcir, who has applied for political asylum, has since ensconced himself in South Africa. He holds court at the Harbour Fish Market restaurant in the Bedford Centre, usually with one of his two Porsches, a Lamborghini Murcielago, a Ferrari Spider or a Mercedes parked in a private, roped-off bay near the front door. He has free reign of the restaurant.
One corner of the outside patio is shielded with bullet-proof glass, installed at Krejcir’s expense after he discovered that a “Russian hit team” had been sent to South Africa by the Czech government to snatch or kill him and planned to position snipers in a block of flats across the road from the restaurant.
Kyalami
Until his murder in May this year, Teazers strip club boss Lolly Jackson – along with George Smith, the man who would be accused of his murder, were Krejcir’s frequent companions at the restaurant.
Krejcir’s R20m Bedfordview home – which he shares with his wife Katerina Krejcirova, a 9-month-old baby boy and their teenage son, is a four storey mansion replete with a steel and glass lift, aquarium and an infinity pool looking out over the Johannesburg skyline. They also own a holiday home on the Vaal Dam.
Once a week he rents Kyalami racetrack so that he and his son can race superbikes and sportscars. “Lolly and I were very good friends because of my sickness with cars. I love cars. He loved cars. Every week we rented Kyalami for two hours to have some adrenaline because I cannot travel, I cannot do fuck-all. I really love these toys.”
Krejcir says he has no desire to return to the Czech Republic. “I believe this is the best country in the world,” he said this week. “I don’t want to go to the Czech Republic because I’ll never have the chance of a fair trial and they will kill me.”
There, 5km from the capital, Prague, Krejcir once lived on a 2 000m² estate in a villa estimated to have cost R151m. It boasted a squash court, basketball court, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a giant aquarium containing reef sharks, a 1.7m moray eel and “other dangerous fishes”. There was also an enclosure on the property for a pet tiger.
Czech police say the house contained a secret strongroom packed with weapons, jewellery, share certificates and classified police documents.
The Velvet Revolution
Krejcir had amassed a fortune by the time he was 30, making most it during the wave of state industry privatisation that followed the 1989 “Velvet Revolution” which saw the overthrow of the authoritarian communist government.
In June 2005, balaclava-clad security police and state prosecutors swooped on Krejcir’s home. Press reports suggest that Krejcir escaped through a bathroom window. According to press reports, he was supposedly spotted three days later in neighbouring Slovakia at a petrol station filling up the tank of a Lamborghini.
He says he was allowed to leave by a state prosecutor. “In my bathroom there was no window. I don’t know how you could escape from 20 guys with machine guns and masks on their faces.”
In the wake of his disappearance, police said they had found billions of crowns in fake currency at a factory owned by Krejcir.
Mixed into the boxes of cash was 8 million Czech crowns (about R3m) of genuine currency.
Krejcir says the boxes of cash were an elaborate gift for a close friend who was turning 40. “We as rich people after the revolution gave some presents like this. The top and bottom of the boxes was real money and the middle was fake and inside it would say: ‘Happy birthday’”
“So you give a present that looks like it is billions of crowns but in reality it is only 8 million crowns.”
Seychelles prison
Krejcir next turned up in the Seychelles where he gave financial support to the ruling elite. As a result, he says, “they offered me and my family a new identity”.
“I submitted an application and received from Home Affairs passports under the name Egbert Jules Savy for me, Sandra Savy for my wife and Greg Savy for my son. I came to South Africa believing my passport was a genuine one.”
The Seychelles authorities later claimed the passports were fake.
But Krejcir says “it is not important if the passport is false or not because if you are successful in getting political asylum, it doesn’t matter how you ended up in the this country because you tried to save your life.”
Krejcir argues that he is a Seychelles citizen and that his Czech citizenship lapsed when he accepted a new passport.
In the Seychelles, to stave off boredom, he wrote a book titled: Radovan Krejcir – Revealed.
“It was so boring there, like being a prisoner in paradise,” he said. “At least I could go diving and fishing…”
In the book he claimed he had advanced about R20m for the 2002 election campaign of Czech Social Democratic candidate Stanislav Gross and in exchange had received a promissory note which stipulated that if the election bid was successful, Krejcir would be given control of the State oil company, Cepro.
Gross later did an about turn and Krejcir was arrested on a “trumped-up charge of fraud”.
That same year, Krejcir’s father was kidnapped. He was never seen again. Krejcir alleges his father was killed by Czech state agents who believed he had the promissory note in his possession. He believes his father’s body was dissolved in a vat of acid.
The Czech Godfather
In early 2006, while Krejcir sunned himself on the Seychelles beaches, Czech newspapers linked him to the assassination of Frantisek Mrazek, the so-called “Godfather” of organised crime in the country.
Mrazek was shot by a sniper outside the building that housed his offices.
Krejcir laughs when asked if he had anything to do with the killing.
“Yes, I shot one bullet from the Seychelles and the bullet travelled all the way direct to his heart. I’m very good.
“What must I say my man? I saw this guy twice in my life. We never had a fight. It is the same situation as my father. They killed him and afterwards said it was my criminals. All the time it was the top government and secret service guys.”
“They say he (Mrazek) was the boss of the Mafia. Apparently, if you believe them, there are Mafia bosses all over the place. If you know any more people from the Czech republic, you probably know more bosses. I must be the worst one because I am wanted for murders and all this.”
Krejcir – who suggests his detractors have found him guilty by association – readily admits that he befriended or became acquainted with several of South Africa’s most controversial businessmen and notorious underworld figures.
Among them were Jackson, Smith, security company kingpin Cyril Beeka, Brett Kebble murder accused and convicted druglord Glen Agliotti, banker and self-confessed money launderer Alekos Panayi and Gauteng police crime intelligence head, Commissioner Joey Mabasa.
“So what?” he asked. “People find me because they believe I’ve got money, that I’m an opportunity for them, that I can do some business with them. So the people are coming, especially to this restaurant, like a bee on honey.”
He said he had a wide network of contacts.
Krejcir said he befriended Jackson’s alleged killer, George Smith, in April 2007 while he was awaiting his extradition hearing. The two shared a cell at Kempton Park police station and after their release, Smith helped him “get connected” introduced him to “most of the people” he knows today.
“I don’t need anybody. I’ve got my money clean overseas. I’ve never made one rand in this country from any business. I’m enjoying my life. I bought property, assets, cars. I’m spending money which I brought in officially through the reserve banks of the Czech Republic and South Africa.”
Krejcir believes it will be to his advantage if the State wins their application tomorrow (Monday) for a review of the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court decision that has allowed him to remain in the country. If they do succeed, the State will proceed with a new extradition application.
“If they start it again, it will take another four years. Even if they decide to extradite me, they cannot do so until the political asylum case is finished.”
» » » » [N24/Mafia Today]
» » [N24/Mafia Today: Fugitive ‘mafia boss’ in SA cancer con]
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