‘Diamonds’ led to Fireblade shunning Guptas

The Oppenheimers’ aviation company Fireblade decided to cut ties with the Gupta family shortly after the family tried to load a green suitcase containing “suspicious items” onto one of its aircraft at Fireblade’s terminal at the OR Tambo airport.

Four sources told Business Day the suitcase was suspected of containing diamonds, supporting the suggestion by EFF leader Julius Malema and others that the family may have tried to move significant assets abroad.

The Guptas denied the allegations on Sunday, branding them “fake news”.

The allegations come as the Oppenheimers engage in a battle with Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba over their application to run a private customs and immigration facility at the terminal. The Oppenheimers allege in court papers the Guptas are behind government’s refusal to grant the application.

De Beers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer confirmed last week an X-ray machine operator at the terminal had refused to load a suspicious suitcase onto an aircraft belonging to “a customer, who is no longer a customer, [who] asked us to load luggage onto their aircraft”.

The customer is understood to have been the Gupta family.

“The suitcase was put into our X-ray machine by their employee. Our operator was not happy with what he saw and refused to load the luggage. That

is all I’m prepared to say,” Oppenheimer said.

Business Day’s sources said that in April 2016, shortly after the Guptas reportedly “fled” SA in their Bombardier jet, an X-ray operator at Fireblade had picked up suspicious items resembling diamonds in a suitcase to be loaded onto another Gupta aircraft.

Sixteen days later, on April 29, Fireblade director Robbie Irons wrote an e-mail to Oppenheimer complaining of the Guptas’ attempts to interfere in their business, recommending that all ties be cut. This was done a fortnight later. Sources said the “green suitcase incident” had played a role in the decision.

Fireblade would not confirm who owned the aircraft but said it had reported the incident to the police, the South African Revenue Service and the State Security Agency. Business Day has learned that the Hawks launched a three-month probe in 2016 but were unable to find sufficient evidence to open a formal case.

“We opened an inquiry into allegations that the Guptas tried to smuggle a 36kg suitcase with diamonds through the Fireblade facility at ORT. They took it out the country, to Dubai,” a senior Hawks official said in 2016 during the investigation

Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi confirmed last week “the information was brought to our attention and it was followed up. It was found that the so-called bag, whose contents [were] suspected to be precious metals, did not make it into the plane since it was not declared.”

Precious metals include diamonds and gold among others.

No formal case was opened because “as far we know the person who had them did not board the flight”, Mulaudzi said.

Gupta lawyer Gert van der Merwe said his clients were not aware of any Hawks investigation. He described the allegations as “frivolous and ludicrous” and an attempt “to tarnish the name of the Gupta family”.

“Reporting on these fictionlike allegations support the wave of fake news force-fed to readers as if they are zombies.

“The family reserves its rights in toto.”