Guptas could lose luxury jet over unpaid bills
THE controversial Gupta family have fallen behind in their repayments of a loan that paid for their now infamous private jet‚ ZS-OAK.
The Canadian government’s export credit agency‚ which provided a soft loan for 80% of the finance required for the jet‚ had allegedly instituted legal action against the Guptas for defaulting on their payments, a report said yesterday.
The agency‚ Export Development Canada (EDC)‚ promotes Canadian businesses growth abroad, by giving finance to global customers to buy products from Canada.
Documents in the Gupta e-mail leaks show that by October 14‚ when the next $1.4-million (R17.7million) payment for the aircraft fell due‚ the Guptas still owed $28.3-million (R359-million) to EDC.
In the report, sources in the aviation industry said the EDC had grounded the plane at Lanseria airport for 48 hours last month, due to non-payment. “It would appear a bank [unknown to us] provided the guarantee of funds and the EDC then released the aircraft,” one of the sources said.
Flight records for the Guptas’ ZS-OAK show that since it departed from Lanseria‚ the jet travelled mostly between India and Dubai‚ where the Guptas have property and business interests.
But on December 13, it flew from Dubai to Zurich‚ where it remained for six days. After that, the aircraft took a 36-minute hop to the EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg, in France – and shared by Switzerland – on Tuesday evening.
Asked if the Guptas had defaulted on their loan‚ EDC spokesman Phil Taylor confirmed this week that the Canadian lender had cancelled the finance agreement.
“EDC monitored the performance of the transaction‚ as it would for all of its counter-parties‚” Taylor said. “Consistent with EDC’s underwriting principles and policies‚ our contractual rights were exercised and the transaction was terminated.” He declined to comment further. However‚ the report said the Guptas were understood to be in a legal dispute with EDC‚ which apparently wants to seize the jet to settle the outstanding debt.
The Gupta family had not responded to questions by the time of going to print.