Trillian’s tangle of secrets and lies
Documents show advisory firm bosses tried to hide Salim Essa’s majority shareholding from Eskom empowerment partner
Scandal-wracked financial advisory firm Trillian Capital Partners’ efforts to hide its links to the Guptas have left it vulnerable to fraud charges by Eskom. New documents obtained by Business Day show Trillian CEO Eric Wood and former chief financial officer Tebogo Leballo sought to hide the majority shareholding of Gupta lieutenant Salim Essa from Eskom and McKinsey’s global risk committee. Investigators probing the unlawful payment of R1.6bn in fees to Trillian and McKinsey for six months work discovered Trillian was registered on Eskom’s supplier database as wholly white owned when it was awarded contracts. This led Eskom to conclude Trillian had invoiced and been paid “on a fraudulent basis” by claiming it was McKinsey’s black empowerment supplier development partner. “However, at the time payment was claimed and made Trillian had no black ownership and was registered as such on Eskom’s supplier database based on its confirmation of shareholding provided on 11 April 2016,” Esko...
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