Ajay, left, and Atul Gupta pictured in this file image. Ajay, left, and Atul Gupta pictured in this file image.
Johannesburg – Lawyers acting on behalf of Oakbay Investments – which is owned by the controversial Gupta family – on Friday
filed an affidavit with the Pretoria High Court.
The affidavit, in response to one lodged by Finance
Minister Pravin Gordhan last year, says Gordhan’s affidavit is flawed.
In a statement issued by lawyers Van der Merwe &
Associates, Oakbay argues Gordhan’s “superfluous application is riddled with
factual and legal errors”.
Last October, Gordhan revealed in a court affidavit that
R6.8 billion in payments made by Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, companies they
controlled and other individuals with the same surname had been reported to the
authorities as suspicious since 2012.
The minister had approached the court to ask it to
confirm that he had no power to invervene in banks’ relationships with its
customers.
Oakbay has previously said all 72 transactions were
approved by the banks processing them.
Several banks and companies cut ties last year with
Oakbay, without publicly disclosing their reasons. They included South Africa’s
top four banks: Standard Bank, Nedbank, Barclays Africa’s Absa, FNB and
Standard Bank.
Last April, the government told Gordhan and two other
cabinet ministers to contact the banks to discuss their decision to cease doing
business with the Gupta companies.
The banks refused to give details, saying their dealings
with clients were confidential.
A document from Murray Mitchell, the director of the
Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), listed 72 suspicious transaction reports
implicating members of the Gupta family and their companies, some of which
comprised multiple entries for which no amount was listed. He did not specify
why the transactions were considered suspect.
Gordhan asked the banks to provide confidential reports
made to the FIC in an open court, detailing suspicious transactions, to
determine if there was any substance to Oakbay’s claim that the banks acted
improperly.
On Friday, Oakbay said Gordhan’s “reliance on the list of
72 purported ‘suspicious transaction reports’ is misplaced and the minister’s
application is supported by a flawed analysis and a faulty factual record”.
The statement added Oakbay has never suggested that the minister
is required to intervene in the bank-customer relationship. “There is no
contested legal issue here and there is never any reason for the minister to
bring this application.”
Read also: Standard
Bank intervenes in Gordhan-Gupta fray
Oakbay says Gordhan could simply have declined to do
anything in the exercise of his legal discretion.
“Instead, he has asked the court to confirm that he does
not have to do anything.”
It adds Gordhan has asked the court to insert itself into
the functioning of the executive branch. “It would be bizarre if every
empowered government official receiving a request for assistance or counsel
races to court to seek a declaration that he/she does not have to act on the
request.”
Read also: Oakbay
refutes Gordhan's application
Oakbay adds it has attempted to gain the information it
needs to prove that each and every transaction is legitimate and above board,
and engaged an international investigative firm – Nardello & Co – to review
the transactions.
It says, without providing a copy of the report, that
there is not enough information about the 72 suspicious transaction reports to
identify them in the books and records of Oakbay Group or the personal bank
accounts of members of the Gupta family.
“Two-thirds of the allegedly suspicious transactions
occurred after the time when the banks had already decided to terminate their
relationship with Oakbay,” it adds.
Oakbay also says the Financial Intelligence Centre’s
release of the information was unlawful and, as a result of its arguments, the
court should decline the relief and dismiss Gordhan’s application with costs.
“Furthermore, the timing of the Minister’s application
supports the Oakbay Group’s suspicions that the application is politically
motivated and is part of the minister’s ongoing plan to diminish the Oakbay
Group and the Gupta family and to damage their hard-earned South African
business.”
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