Behind-the-scenes puzzle
Bank forex scandal: the Zuma link
An organisation that has laid fresh charges against the banks seems to have links to family of the president
It looks as if the lodging of criminal charges against executives at banks involved in an alleged foreign-exchange rigging cartel has the fingerprints of President Jacob Zuma’s associates all over it — though they have tried to distance themselves from the matter. The Black Empowerment Foundation (BEF), an unknown organisation that seems to have sprung up last month, recently laid charges of fraud against executives of 18 banking entities, including Absa, Citibank, Standard Bank and Investec, at the Point police station in Durban, according to SA Police Service spokesman Captain Nqobile Gwala. This follows a move by the competition commission in February, when it referred a case of collusion to the competition tribunal for prosecution against 17 banks. It has been investigating allegations of price fixing and market allocation in foreign currency trading involving the rand since April 2015. Citibank recently paid a R69.5m fine relating to these charges. The BEF’s case has heaped fur...
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