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Vikas Sagar Photo: Supplied
Vikas Sagar, named to the Zondo Commission this week as the capture kingpin at McKinsey in South Africa, now runs a London-based tech startup named a world leader by the World Economic Forum.
Vikas Sagar, named as the lynchpin for McKinsey SA in corrupt deals at Transnet, Eskom and SAA, now has a high-powered role as co-founder of Kalido, a London-based technology company that has secured millions of US dollars in funding from venture capital.
Three McKinsey executives appeared before Zondo’s Commission of Inquiry into State Capture this week and the firm also agreed to reimburse R650 million to Transnet and SAA after reimbursing R1 billion to Eskom in 2018.
McKinsey senior partner Jean-Christophe Mieszala said Sagar, who headed the South Africa office when the dubious deals were closed, had been reported to authorities and fired by the firm for violating his “professional conduct and professional standards.” We had (enough) concerns and suspicions to report him to the authorities and fire him, ”Mieszala said.
The Commission heard evidence that Sagar had colluded with the Gupta family lieutenant and state capture strategist Salim Essa to sign a supplier development contract between McKinsey and Regiments, and later with Trillian’s management consultants.
This contract was the conduit for Essa and the Guptas to extract and launder several million rand in bribes from Transnet, Eskom and SAA.
Mieszala revealed that Sagar had illegally cleaned his McKinsey computer of evidence once an internal investigation began and Commission investigators also showed the company that he had moved his communications with Essa to private email, which is a red flag of fraud.
Information provided to McKinsey by the Commission led the company to agree to reimburse R650 million in fees to Transnet and Mieszala said it had not ruled out returning the interest as well, Judge Zondo told Dec. 10. (For refund details, see here.)
Sagar has landed on his feet. He now works in London as a co-founder of Kalido, named World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer for 2020. Started in South Africa, the company runs an app of the same name that matches talent to projects in the growing concert economy. He has earned millions of dollars in seed funding from venture capital funders excited about his offering.
Their corporate documents say Kalido was co-founded by Sanjay Varma, who was Alibaba’s number three executive, and by Sagar, who still advertises himself as a “former McKinsey senior partner” as part of his new calling card. Part of Kalido’s strategy is to take on Linked-In, which charges a hefty fee and is Western in positioning. Kalido is for everyone. Basic use and availability will always be free… We consciously encourage everyone to participate, and actively seek different cultural and social perspectives, ”says the company’s brochure. It’s good schtickBut Kalido doesn’t mention that McKinsey fired his co-founder after being caught up in serious corruption in South Africa.
“Kalido originated in South Africa, and our co-founders have ties to the country. We have people all over the UK, where we are based, Hong Kong, India, and we have a large proportion of our resources that we bid through a development agency in South Africa, ”said Greg Atkinson, Kalido’s chief marketing officer. Daily maverick.
He did not respond to a request for comment on whether he would investigate the new disclosures about Sagar by the Zondo Commission of Inquiry.
“Sagar sought to use Essa to advance McKinsey’s interests on Transnet (even when he) would have known what was going on at Transnet,” said test lead Matthew Chaskalson. He said that Sagar had also met with Iqbal Sharma, who was sitting at the Transnet board and who introduced Essa to Transnet. Chaskalson revealed that the bribery schedules, allegedly drawn up by the Regiment and (later) Trillian boss Eric Wood, had been emailed to successive Transnet CFOs.
He said that the evidence compiled by the Commission showed that Essa had been paid 50% of all fees earned by the Regiments as part of the McKinsey deal and that these had been paid to a succession of its shell companies that were used to collect your pay.
Mieszala said McKinsey had hardened several of its systems as a result of what had happened in South Africa, including single-source contracts, open-fee risk-based contracts, and the way executives communicated with clients. McKinsey will no longer work in South African state-owned companies and any contracts with South Africa must now be approved globally.
“Now we are much more attentive, almost paranoid,” said Mieszala. McKinsey senior partner David Fine said he had asked National Treasury contacts if Mohamed Bobat (Trillian appointed as an advisor to former ‘Weekend Special’ finance minister Des van Rooyen in 2015) had a connection to Gupta. “The answer was ‘yes,'” Fine told Zondo in her testimony.
“That raised my concerns and I asked for due diligence (on McKinsey’s relationship with the Regiments / Trillian) to be conducted. The firm decided to end the relationship and shortly thereafter began disciplinary action against Sagar, who first said he would appeal his dismissal, but then resigned from McKinsey in 2017. Fine said the firm had inserted immediate termination clauses into its supplier development contracts. .
Chaskalson said McKinsey was the only company that had reimbursed the profits from the state capture, that it had fully cooperated with the Commission, and that it terminated its contracts with the Regiments and Trillian on probity grounds. DM
