Cronje under fire for bank accounts
Fakir Hassen
Indemnity from prosecution for disgraced former
South Africa cricket captain Hansie Cronje, banned for life for
his involvement in match-fixing, is in doubt again.
Allegations are rife that more than 10 million rands had been
deposited into 19 different bank accounts in his name.
The new claims came just as Cronje was winning strong public
support in his bid to have the ban lifted by the United Cricket Board of South
Africa.
They have also put a damper on calls that a reconciliation meeting
between
the parties involved, rather than the high court action initiated
by
Cronje's legal team, would be in the best interests of the sport.
The Sunday Telegraph of London said that more than 10.5
million rands worth of undisclosed deposits were made into bank accounts in
Cronje's name between 1995 and 2000, when he captained the national side.
This was way in excess of the earnings he would have received,
even with bonuses and allowances. The Sunday Telegraph also said that Cronje
owned eight properties.
By his own admission earlier, Cronje said he had done no other
work since
leaving school except playing the sport he loved.
At the King Commission hearings in June last year, Cronje said he
had
received only $120,000 from international bookmakers in four
payments, and a
further 53,000 rands from South African bookmaker Marlon Aronstam
for
information about match conditions.
The South African government established the commission after
Cronje
confessed to his involvement with bookmakers following the release
by Indian
police of telephonic conversations between Cronje and an Indian
bookmaker.
Although the commission has since ended its work, it did not make
the
decisive recommendation that would have secured indemnity from
prosecution
for Cronje.
He had been promised this indemnity if he came clean at the
commission, but Judge Edwin King, chairman of the commission, said he could not
say this
with certainty.
Although the commission did not refer to the huge deposits into
Cronje's
accounts, the Sunday Telegraph said it had seen copies of
confidential
reports of a forensic team employed by the commission.
"The details of the avalanche of cash into Cronje's spider web of
accounts
were uncovered by a team of forensic auditors employed by the King
Commission to probe the disgraced cricketers' financial affairs,"
the paper
said.
It said the team could not identify immediately the source of
almost 120
payments into the accounts.
The new reports have dampened hopes that a proposed meeting later
this week
between Cronje and his team and the National Directorate of Public
Prosecutions would result in him securing the indemnity, which now
has to be decided by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Bulelani Ngquka.
The new revelation of bank accounts also holds serious
implications for Cronje in terms of laws relating to taxation and foreign currency
exchange
regulations.
He is already facing possible prosecution under these laws
following his
disclosures at the King Commission that he had kept cash dollars
received
from bookmakers in his home without even counting them. If the new
allegations are proven, they could aggravate these cases.
Indo-Asian News Service