Court frees more Gupta assets
• Possessions worth about R250m seized in April must now be released
The Guptas and their associates scored a second court victory on Monday when the High Court in Bloemfontein freed assets such as luxury cars, aircraft and properties seized by the Asset Forfeiture Unit.
The Guptas and their associates scored a second court victory on Monday when the High Court in Bloemfontein freed assets such as luxury cars, aircraft and properties seized by the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU).
The assets worth at least R250m were seized in April after the AFU obtained a provisional restraint order in relation to the Estina dairy farm matter.
Those implicated in the case and affected by the restraint order approached the court in a bid to have it overturned.
The case illustrates the difficult task ahead for the National Prosecuting Authority in retrieving the proceeds of state capture and bringing those implicated to book.
It also does not bode well for future cases, which is particularly worrying after Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan estimated that R100bn was lost to state capture and corruption from state-owned entities.
The full-blown judicial inquiry into state capture may kick off in August but Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has indicated that it could take up to two years to conclude its work — after the extent of state capture was revealed through the Gupta e-mail leaks. It is clear that reparations to the state are still a long way off.
Judge Philip Loubser on Monday found there were no reasonable grounds to believe that those implicated in the dairy farm matter would be convicted and so there were no grounds to freeze the assets.
He discharged the provisional restraint order with costs.
This came after Ronica Ragavan, CEO of Gupta holding company Oakbay Investments; Ashu Chawla, CEO of the Guptas’ Sahara Computers; Varun Gupta, a nephew of the Gupta brothers; Oakbay Investments, Aerohaven Trading; Westdawn Investments and Annex Distribution approached the high court in a bid to have the restraint order set aside.
Ragavan, Chawla, Varun Gupta, former Oakbay Investment CEO Nazeem Howa, Kamal Vasram, an IT salesman at Sahara Computers who was the sole director of Estina, and three former officials of the Free State agriculture department have already appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on charges of corruption‚ fraud, theft and money laundering for allegedly looting money meant for the dairy farm.
The AFU in April moved to seize assets worth at least R250m belonging to the Guptas and their associates, allegedly bought with looted state funds.
Monday’s court victory was the second for the family after the same court in March overturned the freezing of R10m in Atul Gupta’s personal bank account.
The court also reduced a preservation order of R220m in relation to the Estina dairy farm project to R40m.
Assets that have now been released include the Guptas’ elusive Bombardier jet, which landed at Lanseria airport in April, after Export Development Canada, the Canadian bank that financed it, went to court to have it grounded.
There were also dozens of luxury vehicles — including several Mercedes-Benzes and Land Rovers, a Porsche Cayenne and a Lamborghini Gallardo — and the bank accounts of Guptalinked companies and houses, businesses and farms across the country. These fixed properties included the Gupta homes in Saxonwold, which were raided, as well as houses in Roggebaai and Constantia in Cape Town, and Umhlanga in Durban
The Gupta brothers were not in SA and there is an outstanding arrest warrant for family patriarch Ajay Gupta in relation to another corruption case.
It is believed that the warrant is in connection with money offered to former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas, who claimed the Guptas offered him a R600m bribe and the position of finance minister in 2015.
Justice Minister Michael Masutha has been in discussions with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) regarding a mutual legal agreement that could see the Gupta brothers returned to SA to answer allegations of state capture levelled against them.
The Guptas have been moving between India and Dubai, which is part of the UAE.
CASE ILLUSTRATES THE DIFFICULT TASK AHEAD IN RETRIEVING THE PROCEEDS OF STATE CAPTURE THE FULL-BLOWN JUDICIAL INQUIRY INTO STATE CAPTURE MAY KICK OFF IN AUGUST