ON THE MONEY
Guptas show money in Optimum trust, but figures indicate there should be more
Are we victims of yet another piece of spin and obfuscation from the Guptas? Last week, Oakbay Investments rejected the allegation that the family had stripped money from the Optimum Mine Rehabilitation Trust. A R1.34bn transaction had been flagged by the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) as suspicious was connected to the trust. The trust holds money to be used when mining ceases at Optimum. To back up their claims, a family lawyer produced a letter from the Bank of Baroda showing that accounts in the name of the trust still had close to R1.47bn. Baroda is the South African branch of the state-owned Indian bank, which seems to be the only bank left doing business with the Guptas. The intention of the disclosure seems to be to make out that the trust still has all the money in it that it should. It also left people to assume that the transaction the FIC was talking about was the same as the transfer of the trust’s bank accounts from Standard Bank to Baroda, after Standard Bank shu...
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