Bank of Baroda scandal

can investigators suspect, helped Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta channel kickbacks to senior South African politicians in return for lucrative government contracts. The Gupta brothers left Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, in the late 1990s and curried favour with senior members of the ruling African National Congress to build South Africa’s most influential business empire.

At BoB’s South Africa offices, executives sought personal favours from the Guptas while the family used BoB accounts to funnel millions of rand through an international network of secretive companies and trusts.

In one case, this network of shell companies was used to payoff a BoB loan extended to President Zuma’s wife, who used the money to buy a house in a posh suburb in Pretoria.

In another, BoB underwrote the controversial purchase of a coal mine in South Africa by the Guptas. This transaction is now the subject of a parliamentary inquiry.

The bank also stood by the Guptas as four major South African banks shut their bank accounts in 2016 on the grounds that anti-money laundering laws made it too risky to do business with the family.

Today, as BoB attempts to severe its relationship with the Guptas, senior bank officials admit that a further setback in South Africa could expose the bank to damaging investigations in all 25 international jurisdictions where it currently does business.

The Bank of Baroda, the Gupta family, and the High Commission of South Africa in India did not respond to a detailed questionnaire sent by HT.