Court action to stop Guptas grabbing mine rehabilitation funds
'The trustees will not be able to secure alternative banking facilities for the trusts due to their association with the Guptas'
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)‚ who 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 Pretoria High Court just hours after the Guptas lost an urgent application to interdict the Bank of Baroda from closing their bank accounts. The Guptas' failed application will now see the bank closing the family's accounts‚ including accounts holding R1.75-billion 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' r...
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