Bank blamed for helping to close Gupta accounts
• Bank of Baroda is under systematic pressure to halt services, Oakbay CEO says in affidavit
Gupta-linked companies have accused the South African Reserve Bank of pressuring the Bank of Baroda into closing their bank accounts and bringing about the family’s demise. This is according to court papers lodged by the 20 companies in their final bid to have the courts interdict Baroda from closing the accounts.
Gupta-linked companies have accused the South African Reserve Bank of pressuring the Bank of Baroda into closing their bank accounts and bringing about the family’s demise.
This is according to court papers lodged by the 20 companies in their final bid to have the courts interdict Baroda from closing their accounts.
The Reserve Bank, which regulates the banking sector in SA, and the registrar of banks are respondents in the matter.
In October, the High Court in Pretoria gave the companies 15 days to launch their final application, and in the meantime, ordered that the Bank of Baroda keep the accounts open.
The Bank of Baroda is the last financial institution to provide the Guptas with bank accounts, after four local and two international banks cut ties. Baroda has been accused of helping the family launder money.
In her founding affidavit, Ronica Ragavan, acting Oakbay Investments CEO and director of nine of the companies, said it was apparent that Bank of Baroda had been “materially influenced” by the conduct of the central bank to end its relationship with the Gupta companies.
“This has been orchestrated by the second respondent [the Reserve Bank] who has systematically pressurised the bank over a period of time for improper reasons,” she said.
She said this pressure was most visible in the inspections conducted and the R11m fine imposed on the bank in June. The central bank fined the Bank of Baroda for not doing enough to combat financial crime.
She said Tegeta CEO Ravindra Nath had met Baroda’s acting CE, Manoj Kumar Jha, earlier this year where it was mentioned that one of the bank’s senior executives had visited SA to meet the Reserve Bank.
Jha did not tell Nath who the executive was, but confirmed that the meeting had taken place, that there had been discussions about the Gupta-linked accounts and that the Reserve Bank “was not happy” with Baroda providing banking services to them, she said.
“He said that the Reserve Bank was subjecting Baroda’s relationship with the applicants to more scrutiny than its relationship with its other clients, [and] that it was asking for many documents [including historic documents].”