SARS has attached the assets of state capture-linked firm Trillian and its sole director, Eric Wood. During a liquidation application brought by SARS and heard in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) yesterday, it emerged that the revenue service had appointed a curator to attach Trillian's and Wood’s assets.

While the SARS order is confidential, Fin24 says it understands that the assets of a raft of other entities and subsidiaries related to the firm have also been attached.

The existence of the order was revealed during the liquidation application which began on 17 January when Eskom applied for the liquidation of Wood and Trillian and a contempt of court order against Wood, for failing to pay back R595m owed to Eskom by the consulting firm.

Trillian was appointed as a subcontractor by global consulting firm McKinsey, as part of the development of a turnaround strategy for the embattled state-owned enterprise. But allegations later emerged that Trillian did not have a valid contract with McKinsey and that Eskom was overcharged.

McKinsey paid back R1bn which Eskom had paid to it, but Trillian did not.

Eskom obtained an order in October last year compelling Trillian and Wood to pay back R595m.

Yesterday, lawyers for Trillian and Wood argued that there could be no liquidation order until the curator appointed by SARS was joined as a respondent in the case. This was because the curator was technically now in control of Trillian’s assets.

Eskom's lawyers, however, countered that the liquidation application predates the SARS order, and in terms of the Companies Act, the curator has no say in what happens to the assets yet.

Judge Natvarlal Ranchod, however, ruled that the matter should be removed from the roll pending the joining of the curator.

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