Inside the great Gupta gathering in Dubai, December 2015
The Gupta brothers, Mosebenzi Zwane, Duduzane Zuma, two premiers sons, the SARS commissioner, an Eskom boss and others happened to visit Dubai in the same month
What would a president's son, three businessmen with billions in the bank and an eye on state resources, two premier's sons and a host of other politicians all be doing in Dubai at the same time?
If you ask them, they would want you to believe they were all on holiday and it was merely coincidence that they all happened to choose Dubai - in the same month.
They would want you to believe it is still coincidence that most of them stayed at the same hotel.They even dispute that they met one another. But one thing they cannot dispute is that details of their travel to Dubai in December 2015 - all ended up in the Gupta e-mail leak. The Times has pieced together, through flight and hotel bookings contained in the leaked e-mails, a stream of visitors to Dubai in December 2015, a tax haven that has emerged as a crucial hub for the Gupta family empire. Some of the visitors arrived on the Gupta family's account and the e-mails show the controversial family shelled out at least R600,000 for plane tickets that month alone. The month was an important one for the Gupta family and their deals in South Africa. The lucrative and controversial Optimum coal mine purchase deal was finalised with assistance from the Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane in early December in Zurich. Zwane travelled to Dubai on the Guptas' private jet with Rajesh Gupta...
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