How Bank of Baroda was overwhelmed by suspicious Gupta-linked accounts
Pretoria court hears the bank was unable to cope, flagging about 36 suspicious transactions valued at R4.2bn
The Bank of Baroda flagged about 36 suspicious transactions on Gupta-linked accounts in 10 months, valued at R4.2bn, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Friday. The bank was unable to cope with the work as it had to review every transaction with a small staff and could face legal liabilities if it failed to monitor the accounts, said senior counsel for the bank, Dennis Fine. The Gupta family filed an urgent application to prevent Baroda from closing its accounts at the end of September. This is pending its main application to overturn the decision by the bank to terminate dealings with the family due to be heard on December 7. Baroda has been closely linked to the family even after four local and two international banks, including the Bank of China, had cut ties, and has also been accused of helping the family to launder money. The Bank of Baroda issued notice of its intention to close the accounts by the end of August and gave the family an additional month after it had complained ...
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