The trustees of a Gupta-linked mining rehabilitation fund have been accused of deliberately and unlawfully allowing the controversial family to use the trust to pay back loans. That is the argument of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa)‚ which on Thursday filed an affidavit in an urgent court application to have the accounts‚ in which the funds are held‚ frozen. The application was brought in the High Court in Pretoria just hours after the Guptas lost an urgent application to interdict the Bank of Baroda from closing their bank accounts. The bank will close the family’s accounts‚ including accounts holding R1.75bn for the rehabilitation of their Kroonfontein and Optimum coal mines. The mines are owned by the Guptas’ Tegeta Exploration and Resources company through their holding firm Oakbay. In their application‚ Outa’s legal head‚ Stefanie Fick‚ said the organisation was bringing the application to protect the funds within the mines’ rehabilitation trusts. She said their appli...

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