A Scorpio investigation has directly linked Julius Malema and the EFF to the looting of billions at VBS Mutual Bank.

This was revealed on Wednesday by Daily Maverick in an investigation which detailed how Malema and his party benefitted more than R1.8m of depositors’ money invested in the bank which now faces liquidation.

This comes weeks after the release of a national treasury-commissioned report by Advocate Terry Motau titled The Great Bank Heist which listed EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu's brother, Brian, as one of the people who brought the bank to its knees.               

The report, released last month, detailed how Sgameka, a company owned by Brian received more than R16m from the mutual bank. It was later alleged that R10m of the R16m received by Brian went to his older brother.

Daily Maverick has now revealed that Brian’s company was a front for Floyd while Malema also used his cousin Matsobane Phaleng’s Mahuna Investment company  to front in a similar manner. The two, Brian and Phaleng, are said to be in financial constraints just months after receiving millions, something the investigators found odd.

Sunday World reported that Brian was on brink of losing his car due to failure to meet his payment obligations while Scorpio investigators have now also revealed that Phaleng received just more than R100 000 in “director’s fees” from his company. “This suggests that Phaleng was not the real owner of the account and not the intended receiver of the illicit VBS funds paid into Mahuna by Sgameka,” reports Daily Maverick.

According to the investigation, in just seven months, Mahuna paid more than R430 000 towards a Sandton property in which Malema resided from as early as 2012. The same property was later bought by the EFF for more than R5m. The party also indirectly received more than R600 000 from Mahuna between July and August 2017 allegedly paid into different accounts.

The investigators managed to link the money to EFF through the descriptions on Mahuna’s bank statements which read “July 26” and “EFF GP” which were allegedly allocated to EFF’s 2017 birthday celebrations.

Calls to the EFF office went unanswered.

- Additional reporting by Kgothatso Madisa