May 22 2011 at 12:22pm

http://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/media-have-convicted-me-1.1072030

What really happened in the four years of plea bargain negotiations between former Fidentia boss J Arthur W Brown and State prosecutors?

The way Brown tells it, he was preyed on by State prosecutors at his weakest moment, while suffering depression after a sexual assault in custody.

Brown, who is out on bail, has lodged a second stay of prosecution application in the Western Cape High Court in which he accuses the State of planting a lawyer in his ranks in order to force a plea bargain.

In his lengthy affidavit, Brown paints a picture of unscrupulous prosecutors who would stop at nothing to secure a conviction, calling them “malicious” and “vindictive”.

However, according to a former State prosecutor, the lead investigator on the case and one of Brown’s own lawyers, his version of events is a lie.

In replying affidavits in the case, advocate Bruce Morrison and Colonel Geoffrey Edwards both say Brown sought another plea bargain as recently as February, and that he had initiated talks as far back as September 2007.

According to Morrison, the talks failed because of Brown’s “unacceptable and unrealistic” expectations. He says Brown wanted to be charged only as an “accessory to fraud” with a 10-year sentence and a possibility of spending only three years under house arrest.

Brown was also willing to pay a R30 million fine, Morrison says.

“I deny that the (Scorpions were) unco-operative in this regard. Clearly (the State) was not in a position to accede to unrealistic proposals… from (Brown).”

Morrison says the State had expected Brown to admit to charges of racketeering, fraud, theft, money laundering and various contraventions of the Companies Act, while agreeing to serve 20 years, “a portion of which could be suspended”.

Much of Brown’s stay of prosecution application centres on the allegation that Morrison and other prosecutors hatched an elaborate plan to force him to use Joseph Weeber as his attorney instead of William Booth and Rashad Khan.

Brown claims that after a sexual assault while in custody in 2008, he was on the verge of a mental breakdown and was in no position to discuss a possible plea.

“The whole intention of (the State) was to ensure that I was never released on bail, but remained in custody at Pollsmoor Prison to force me to enter into a plea bargain to plead guilty.

“I had never met or spoken to Mr Joe Weeber before, nor did I know his capabilities as a lawyer, but Mr Edwards told me (that) Mr Morrison has a very good relationship and understanding with him and gave me Mr Weeber’s telephone number the same day,” Brown says.

Brown retained Weeber’s services but says that “due to my mental state at the time, I am unable to give full details of my discussion with Mr Weeber”.

“However, I am of the bona fide view that Mr Weeber and his partner should have ceased questioning me about my involvement in the Fidentia Group of companies and stopped all discussions and negotiations… due to my aforesaid poor mental health, of which they were aware.”

Brown is convinced that Weeber fed information to the Scorpions.

“I was shocked to see that I was required to plead to crimes I had no knowledge of and to implicate innocent people.”

In an affidavit Weeber says Brown is “not truthful” and denies being planted by the State. He says he was acting on Brown’s instructions at all times.

Meanwhile, in his affidavit Edwards questions why Brown contacted him on February 22 if he suspected Edwards and Morrison had plotted against him.

He quotes an SMS in which Brown says: “Hi Geoff. Been thinking a lot lately. Would like to chat. Give me a call sometime pls.”

Edwards says: “Had I previously been central to a process of attempting to trick (him) into entering into a plea and sentence agreement against his will and better judgement, it would be most surprising that (Brown) would now seek me out as a person through whom he wishes to initiate further discussions.”

Brown has blamed the media for convicting him based on the allegations that more than R1 billion had been stolen “from widows and orphans”. He argues that no judge can objectively hear the case as a result of the bad press.

He alleges the State deliberately fed reporters false and damaging information about his alleged involvement in fraud at Fidentia.

“(The State) to date has not rectified the false information fed to the media about me; hence I have been convicted by the media and the public and have definitely suffered trial prejudice in violation of my constitutional right to be presumed innocent.”

Brown says the media, along with Morrison and current State advocate Jannie van Vuuren “have no respect for the presumption of innocence enshrined in our constitution”.

Although Brown’s application was set down for hearing on May 16, the case was postponed after he changed legal counsel at the last minute. It is expected to be heard on August 1, also the date set down for his criminal trial to begin.

In February 2008, former Fidentia financial director Graham Maddock was sentenced to 49 years in jail after pleading guilty to charges of theft, fraud, money laundering, conducting the business of a company recklessly or fraudulently and contraventions of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act. He would serve an effective seven years in jail, but in November the high court converted the sentence to one of correctional supervision.

Another Fidentia associate, Steven Goodwin, had fled to Australia and was eventually arrested in Los Angeles. Goodwin also reached a plea agreement with the State and was sentenced to 50 years for fraud, corruption and money laundering involving R90m.

He is expected to serve 10 years.

Both Maddock and Goodwin are expected to testify for the State if Brown’s stay of prosecution application is unsuccessful.