Angelo Agrizzi granted bail, Italian villa used as surety

Former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi has been granted bail in the High Court in Johannesburg. Judgement was delivered on Friday, 30 October 2020.

Agrizzi had approached the court to challenge the Palm Ridge Magistrates Court earlier in the month, on the grounds of him being a flight risk.

Agrizzi’s multimillion rand villa in Italy will be used as collateral.

Delivering the order, Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng said the lower court had erred in not granting him bail.

“The appellant is admitted to bail and it I further ordered that the outcome of the trial, the appellant is granted bail equal to the full value of the appellant’s property at the time the property was placed,”

Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng

Agrizzi’s property worth R17 million

The judgement has a number of stringent conditions attached to it, including that he report to the police station day between 08:00 and 18:00 and is not allowed to change his address nor contact any of the witnesses in the case.

“After negotiations, the value of the property in Italy was put up as a bail amount. Mr Agrizzi will give a guarantee that should he evade his trial or his bail revoked that the National Prosecuting Authority would inherit the property. The property was purchased for around €880 which is give or take R16m or R17m,” said his lawyer Daniel Witz.

Agrizzi was placed behind bars on October 14, after he was denied bail. He faces corruption charges related to a number of payments made to former African National Congress (ANC) Member of Parliament (MP) Vincent Smith. He is currently out on R30 000 bail on the same case.

His health deteriorated after being in jail for merely a day and had to be transferred to a public hospital. Agrizzi’s condition then worsened and had to be taken to a private health facility.

According to his  Witz, the former Bosasa COO is in an intensive care unit (ICU) and on dialysis.

It was revealed in court that Agrizzi and his common law wife Debbie, had transferred approximately R24 million to offshore accounts. He also purchased property and a luxury car in Italy – coincidentally, Agrizzi claimed to have lost his Italian passport and thus, could not hand it in, as per the normal bail conditions.