The Guptas’ tangled web
Global giants McKinsey, Bombardier and Export Development Canada have found themselves snarled up in Gupta-linked corruption scandals as SA’s law enforcement authorities pounce on the family’s assets
Canada’s state export bank spent months in court trying to get the Guptas to return the Bombardier jet it had financed. This month it finally succeeded. At 8pm on Friday April 13, the Guptas’ elusive Bombardier Global 6000 with the tail number ZS-OAK was spotted taxiing towards the arrivals terminal at Lanseria airport. Export Development Canada (EDC) had withdrawn the loan last year, citing reputational damage and a string of "trigger defaults". These included a late payment, cancellation of a maintenance contract with ExecuJet, the closure of the Guptas’ bank accounts and the delisting of their companies after their auditors and JSE sponsors jumped ship. In February EDC went to court to ground the jet, for which it had loaned Gupta company Westdawn Investments US$41m of the aircraft’s $52m purchase price in 2015. But the Guptas for months played hide and seek, switching off the aircraft’s public tracker and launching a counter application in a UK court. This prompted EDC to remark...
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