The Gauteng High Court has ordered the sequestration of Gupta associate Eric Wood's estate, ruling in favour of Transnet's Second Defined Benefit Fund. 

The company, which accused Woods of fraud and corruption amounting to R110-million, launched an application for the sequestration of his estate. It also claimed that he is now insolvent due to his debt surpassing the value of his assets. 

The fund accused him of allegedly abusing his position as the pension fund advisor to its members' detriment.

Wood is a former shareholder in the Gupta-linked company Regiments Capital, which is at the centre of questionable lucrative contracts with state-owned companies such as Transnet. 

His alleged fraudulent conduct includes suspicious trades in bonds meant to boost commission and questionable payments related to financial instruments linked to the corrupt deal to supply Transnet with 1 064 locomotives. 

The High Court order on Tuesday follows a provisional one issued in November last year. 

Judge Seena Yacoob also dismissed Wood's request to furnish the court with oral evidence or cross-examine the fund's witnesses to dislodge its case against him. 

He did not ask for the discharge of the previous provisional order, and he does not deny the allegations relating to him facilitating fraudulent transactions, called "bond churning transactions", which resulted in a financial loss to the fund and him receiving millions from the transactions, Yacoob found. 

Yacoob ruled that there were no grounds for an oral cross-examination as she was satisfied with the fund's evidence that the transactions were unjustified and only benefitted Wood and the entities linked to him. 

"There is nothing that Mr Wood has put before the court that raises a dispute of fact on this score, leading to a finding that oral evidence and cross-examination may dislodge what the fund has established. A liquidated claim, therefore, has been established," read the judgment.

The court also ruled that Wood submitted that his assets were worth R1.4-million, which Yacoob said made him insolvent considering the fund's claim of R90-million against him. Yacoob said the court believed that an investigation and enquiry might uncover assets that would recover monies owed by Wood to creditors. 

"Taking into account that Mr Wood has received, through his entities which received payment on his behalf as well as directly, many millions of rand more than he claims his estate is worth, I am satisfied that there is reason to believe that investigation and enquiry may unearth assets that will benefit creditors."