Trustees oppose bid to have Gupta-owned mines’ rehab fund accounts frozen
The trustees of the Gupta-owned Optimum and Koornfontein coal mines’ rehabilitation fund accounts, worth R1.75bn, are opposing an application to have the accounts frozen. Last week the High Court in Pretoria handed down an interim order directing the Bank of Baroda to continue to hold the rehabilitation funds in interest-bearing accounts in the trusts’ names. The trustees, or those with signing powers, were also interdicted "from directly or indirectly" dealing in any way with, disposing of or removing from the country, any of the funds or assets of the trust including, but not limited to, the trust’s funds held in any account of or at the Bank of Baroda. This was after the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) lodged an application with the court alleging that the trustees mismanaged the funds, allowing the controversial family to use the trusts to pay back loans.
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