Media Statement by Trillian Capital Partners

23 October 2016
Trillian Capital Partners hereby makes it known that the allegations contained in the report that
appeared in The Sunday Times today, Sunday, 23 October 2016, under the title The dark heart
of state capture are, as far as Trillian Capital are concerned, factually incorrect, grossly
misleading and indeed sensationalist. The report demonstrates poor and unprincipled
journalism on the newspapers part.
Trillian Capital Partners furthermore places on record that it takes serious issue with the
contents and tenor of the report. The insinuations and claims that Trillian Capital Partners and
its Chief Executive Officer, Dr Eric Wood, are somehow party to the activity that has recently
enjoyed many print columns and has been styled state capture are quite simply untrue. Those
wild and unsubstantiated allegations have extremely damaging repercussions for the
reputation of an emerging and growing black-owned Financial Services Group and to that of Dr
Wood.
As was conveyed to The Sunday Times before the report in question went to print:
1 The Gupta family has no shareholding or other interest whatsoever in Trillian Holdings.
It has no link to Trillian Holdings or to any of the other constituent members of the
Trillian group of companies. The shareholders register of Trillian Holdings was provided
to The Sunday Times senior journalist, Mr Sabelo Skiti. However, he chose not to
include this fact in the report.
2 In fact, while, in the course of Saturday, 22 October 2016, Trillian met with Mr Skiti to
disabuse his newspaper of a number of fundamental misapprehensions under which it
laboured, the account in question to which Trillian was asked to respond was sent to it
only at 20:21 on Friday, 21 October 2016. Despite repeated requests to that end, The
Sunday Times refused to give Trillian sufficient time to answer. In the course of
Saturday, 22 October 2016, the newspaper was told in no uncertain terms that Trillian
needed more time to answer fully and properly, including locating documents relevant
to the allegations and even to obtain affidavits. The newspaper gave an initial deadline
of 14:00 on Saturday, which it later extended to an undefined time. In circumstance
where the newspaper would have gone to print later on Saturday, this could never be a
reasonable time. In effect, The Sunday Times ambushed Trillian. There is no reason for
the report to have appeared today rather than next Sunday, by when Trillian would
have had a reasonable time and would have answered fully, as it indicated to the
newspaper.

3 In its e-mail message of 20:21 on Friday, 21 October 2016, The Sunday Times indicated
to Trillian Capital Partners that Ms Mosilo Mothepu had made the allegations in
question against it, to whom the report refers as a whistleblower. Trillian made it
clear that Ms Mothepu is a disgruntled former employee, who, therefore, cannot be a
whistleblower in the legal sense of the word or enjoy the protection of the Protected
Disclosures Act, and that her account contains a web of falsehoods. Ms Mothepu has, in
fact, committed a number of criminal offences and, as Trillian told the newspaper, a
criminal prosecution will shortly ensue.
4 Ms Mothepu resigned from Trillian in June 2016 alleging constructive dismissal (her
constructive dismissal case is still before the CCMA). The allegations that The Sunday
Times has attributed to Ms Mothepu were brought to our attention neither during her
period of employment, nor at the time of her resignation.
5 What is more, it has subsequently come to the attention of Trillian that, while in its
employ, Ms Mothepu was (without disclosing this fact) a shareholder and a director of a
company competing with Trillian.
6 We reiterate that we indicated to the newspaper that Trillian Capital Partners is able to
provide a full and complete answer to the account of Ms Mothepu but that it needed a
reasonable time to do so. The newspaper chose to ignore that plea.
7 Trillian Capital Partners is satisfied that its considered response would have made the
report, were it written fairly, a very different one to the one indeed published today.
Accordingly, while Trillian wanted to be as co-operative as possible and while there are
full answers to the account of Ms Mothepu, who, we repeat, is a disgruntled exemployee, we could not provide that full answer on such unreasonably short notice.
8 The Sunday Times chose to ignore our commitment to provide them with all the
information required within four business days. We are convinced that its actions in this
regard are a neatly crafted attempt on their part to ambush Trillian.
9 The unfair and unreasonable actions of The Sunday Times leads us to believe that it was
its intention to publish the story whatever the facts that Trillian provided to it. It seems
that it had no intention of properly testing the veracity of the source or the motive that
impelled her utterances.
10 The Sunday Times thus chose to publish an article that is highly defamatory in nature, in
which raw and untested allegations are printed as fact without even a basic attempt to
ascertain and confirm them.

11 The public interest requires that something other than the publishing at great speed of
sensationalist and unfounded material, where the subjects have not had the chance to
give their full and considered account. Trillian reserves its legal rights in this regard.
12 Trillian reiterates that it is confident that as far as its actions are concerned, all due
processes were followed and that it delivered high-quality work and value to all its
clients. The company continues to conduct its business in keeping with the highest
standards of corporate governance and service delivery, and will continue do so.
ENDS