South Africa’s Guptas on UK’s sanctions list
BUSINESSMEN LINKED TO EX-PRESIDENT ZUMA’S CORRUPTION SCANDAL
INDIAN businessmen from South Africa are among 22 individuals against whom Britain announced its first sanctions under a new global anti-corruption regime on Monday (26).
Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta and their associate Salim Essa were placed on the list over a corruption scandal under South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma.
They are among 22 individuals from Russia, South Africa, Sudan and Latin America whose assets have been frozen and business restrictions imposed.
UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab said the ban also included several individuals suspected of being involved in serious corruption in Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala, including facilitating bribes to drug cartels. “Corruption has a corrosive effect as it slows development, drains the wealth of poorer nations and keeps their people trapped in poverty,” Raab told parliament.
“It poisons the well of democracy. The individuals we have sanctioned today have been involved in some of the most notorious corruption cases around the world.”
Britain previously followed the European Union’s sanctions regime but since leaving the bloc in January last year has struck out alone with its own policy. Those sanctioned include 14 people allegedly involved in the diversion of $230 million (£165m) of Russian state property through a fraudulent tax refund scheme uncovered by lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Sudanese businessman Ashraf Seed Ahmed Hussein Ali - known as “Al Cardinal” – is also on the list for allegedly misappropriating state assets in impoverished Sudan in league with elites in neighbouring South Sudan.
The US Treasury department welcomed London’s move, which closely mirrors similar restrictions in Washington and also by the Canadian government. The global anticorruption sanctions are designed to prevent Britain from being a safe haven for illicit funds and money laundering.
Raab said the new regime will allow the country to target graft, in particular bribery and misappropriation, and promote better governance, the rule of law and stronger democratic institutions.
Once one of South Africa’s wealthiest families, the Guptas left the country when the ruling African National Congress ousted Zuma from power early in 2018.
They built a business empire in mining, media, technology and engineering and have been accused of vast corrupt dealings with the former president and receiving favourable government contracts.
Smouldering rumours of the family’s undue influence on Zuma surfaced in 2016 when evidence emerged that the Guptas had offered key government jobs to those who could help their business interests.
Former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas revealed that the Guptas had offered him a promotion shortly before
Zuma sacked respected finance minister Nhlanhla Nene in December 2015.
The US Treasury announced sanctions in October 2019 on the Gupta family, calling them a “significant corruption network” that dispersed bribes and misappropriated millions in state funds. The brothers are reported to have relocated to Dubai, leaving behind their once-giant mining-to-media business conglomerate in shambles. Their exact whereabouts are unknown. Indian tax officials raided several properties belonging to the Guptas in March 2018. They were linked to a $15 million (£11m) temple the brothers are building in their hometown Saharanpur.The brothers are at the centre of a South African investigation into corruption under Zuma’s administration.