Fourteen people — directors, managers, their lawyers and company officials — have been found to be in contempt of court after access to the Oakbay Investments computer server at the heart of the Gupta business empire was blocked for weeks. The High Court in Johannesburg ordered them out of the way of a forensic investigation by business-rescue practitioners digging into the financials of eight subsidiaries and to explain why they should not be jailed. This order comes after many approaches to the court to gain access to the server housing information of more than 30 companies in the Oakbay stable. The court papers from the rescue companies showed a reliance on petty semantics and pedantic interpretations of earlier court rulings to frustrate access to the Oakbay offices and prevent access to the server. The case has also opened up the potential for the 14 respondents to spend up to 30 days in jail or face some other sanction if they can’t adequately explain to the court on May 22 wh...
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