the construction was not paid by Zuma himself; instead it was paid in installments by Bohlabela Wheels, Fakude PZN, and some in cash by Durban businessman Vivien Reddy, both in person by him and on one of his company's cheques. Nkandla development and selling influence To finance the continued construction on his estate, Zuma took out a bond, which "Reddy signed as … guarantor for R400,000 [US$60,000]." To continue his influence on Zuma, Reddy also paid the instalments on the bond, which came to nearly R12,000 (US$1,800) a month. Despite the regular monetary inflow, Zuma's financial troubles continued due to unforeseen costs in the Nkandla development. Zuma decided, therefore, to sell his political influence. Alan Thétard, then one of Thomson-CSF's directors, met with Schabir Shaik in Durban on 30 September 1999, during the course of which it was agreed that Thétard would give Shaik money to cover Zuma's debts in exchange for Zuma's protection from the commission investigating the arms deal, and ongoing support for any future Thomson-CSF deals with the South African government. During subsequent negotiations over the latter part of 1999, Shaik and Thétard agreed to a bribe amount of R1 million (US$154,000), and at a meeting in March 2000, Thétard, Shaik, and Zuma finalised the exchange. At this point, Zuma was in desperate need for money as the bribe was going to cover the continued construction of his Nkandla development, yet Thétard has not transferred any money to Shaik thus far. Shaik demanded an immediate response to this "extremely delicate matter" from Thétard, but Thétard failed to respond and by 19 October, Shaik in his role as Zuma's financial advisor, attempted to stop all construction on Nkandla, prompting Zuma to tell his contractors to ignore Shaik's orders. Zuma wrote a cheque for R1 million to his contractors, the payment of which was stopped by Shaik. By late 2000, Shaik knew that the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the Scorpions would be watching all financial transactions made between him and Zuma, so the international division of Thomson-CSF sent an encrypted fax to Nkobi Holdings detailing a "service provider agreement" which updated the contract signed between Nkobi Holdings and Thomson-CSF for the delivery of the Corvettes. This agreement was used to disguise the payment of the bribe. The fax, which was later obtained in a raid on Shaik's office by the Scorpions, contained a non-bribery clause next to