'Murder' and deceit stalk Lonrho

Controversial tobacco kingpin Paul de Robillard has been implicated in an alleged assassination plot targeting top executives at Lonrho, a century-old London-based conglomerate with African operations, headed for years by colourful rogue Tony Rowland.

De Robillard and his long-standing business partner, President Jacob Zuma's eldest son Edward, tried last year to launch low-cost airline Fastjet in South Africa.

This plan appears to have fallen apart.

Business Times is in possession of a recording in which De Robillard, who until mid-2011 headed Lonrho's global logistics company Rollex, and Gavin van der Burgh, former head of Lonrho's fishing arm Oceanfresh, are thought to be discussing plans to murder current Lonrho executives Ben Ward and Francois Le Roux - evidently to thwart a forensic probe.

In the recording, Van der Burgh can be heard to ask: "Is everything under control with that matter relating to Mr Ward and Mr Le Roux ?"

De Robillard responds: "It certainly is ... if the one is rocking up at you there tomorrow, we would prefer to do him there and then."

Van der Burgh: "I am sure Francois will be there tomorrow."

De Robillard later says: "Our guys now are on standby tomorrow so we are not going to miss the opportunity of the party."

Sources at Lonrho said they believed that the words "do" and "party" were references to murder.

Charges were laid with the police, according to three sources with intimate knowledge of the case.

Ward and Le Roux are now under 24-hour protection by bodyguards.

De Robillard and Van der Burgh vehemently denied the claim that they plotted to kill Ward and Le Roux.

De Robillard described the claims as ''spurious and unfounded", saying he was unaware that any charges had been laid.

Van der Burgh's lawyers said he, too, ''emphatically denies any involvement in a murder conspiracy".

The assassination threat was apparently a bid to derail investigations into a multimillion-rand fraud at Lonrho's subsidiary Oceanfresh, which implicated Van der Burgh, and smuggling in Lonrho subsidiary Rollex, which implicated De Robillard.

Last year, Swiss cement billionaire Thomas Schmidheiny and former UBS director Rainer-Marc Frey bought Lonrho for R2.9-billion, delisted it from the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges, and then discovered widespread fraud at the company.

Ward, who took over as manager of Lonrho's agribusiness after the Swiss took control, initiated the probe into Oceanfresh.

A forensic report on Oceanfresh by Alchemy Business Consultants has been given to prosecutors. Lonrho insiders claim that De Robillard was central to the transport of illegal goods, including tobacco, through Rollex.

Though Alchemy's forensic report has not emerged publicly, insiders with direct knowledge of the contents say that it lays bare a devastating trail of fraud and financial misappropriation - shady dealings that would have artificially inflated the value of Oceanfresh, and meant that the Swiss overpaid for Lonrho.

When contacted, Lonrho refused to comment "on any current business matter and on any ongoing investigation".

Van der Burgh and his wife Marlene founded Oceanfresh, which provided fish to a number of giant companies, including US-based retail behemoth Walmart.

Walmart said last week it had discontinued its relationship with Oceanfresh, but refused to say why.

According to two sources directly involved in the probe, Lonrho found that Van der Burgh had directed a systematic manipulation of Oceanfresh's finances through the "round tripping" of cash between a series of bank accounts.

Van der Burgh faced criminal charges and civil action. Lonrho claimed about R65-million in damages.

This week, Van der Burgh said: ''While it is correct that civil action and a criminal complaint were filed against me, a settlement agreement has been concluded ... [and] I am not at liberty to disclose the details."

But he denied any ''misappropriation of Oceanfresh assets".

Lonrho described Oceanfresh and Rollex as key holdings of its agribusiness division, which had made up 65% of its revenue by 2012.

Shortly before it was delisted, Lonrho's financials showed 129.3% growth in the agribusiness division, as it made £72.7-million, partly through acquisitions.

But one insider says Oceanfresh was actually almost worthless due to mountains of debt, while Rollex had also been described as "effectively bankrupt" by the time of the sale.

This suggests that the Swiss investors were duped, thanks partly to the alleged fraud.

This is the latest scandal to hit Lonrho, which was once dubbed the ''unacceptable face of capitalism" by British politicians for the way Rowland scored shady deals from African dictators he befriended.

The SA Revenue Service is currently investigating De Robillard for his alleged role in a tobacco-smuggling syndicate, which used Rollex's assets and infrastructure.

Rollex's containers were allegedly filled with tobacco, which passed through customs into South Africa without paying the required taxes.

This week, De Robillard denied using Rollex's assets to ''smuggle illicit goods".

He said the details of the SARS investigation had been ''flaunted in the press", which was ''obviously an attempt at character assassination".

Tobacco smuggling has exploded in South Africa in the past few years as many gangsters seek to cash in from tobacco as they can make more from it than by peddling cocaine.

De Robillard has since established a new logistics business, AfriAg SA, which is part-owned by AfriAg, a company listed on London's AIM exchange.

Intriguingly, AfriAg was established by David Lenigas, a former chairman of Lonrho and later chairman of Fastjet, with which De Robillard was also involved.

Who is Paul de Robillard?

Zimbabwe-born Paul de Robillard is a self-made multi-millionaire and now a South African permanent resident.

Apart from his current and historical directorships of more than a dozen companies, he is also founder and former head of pan-African fruit and vegetable logistics company Rollex.

Top SA Revenue Service (SARS) officials describe De Robillard as one of the "richest people in SA" - wealth which appears to have been derived largely from the sale of Rollex to Lonrho.

De Robillard is a key figure in a SARS probe into tobacco smuggling - although he denies any role in the tobacco underworld.

In 2010, the tax probe implicated De Robillard and Durban-based businessman Yusuf Kajee in a tobacco-smuggling "ring".

The claim was that De Robillard used Rollex to transport illicit goods for sale in SA's black markets.

The pair would later surface as members alongside Edward Zuma, the president's eldest son, in a consortium that planned to bring UK budget carrier Fastjet to local shores.