MASERU - The US Treasury has unleashed a massive body blow to the controversial Indian Gupta family, with Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Sigal Mandelker, slapping them with sanctions this Thursday.
news
Oct. 10, 2019
Report compiled by METRO REPORTERS
4 min read
Massive body blow for Gupta family
The senior of the Gupta brothers, Atul, was Lesotho PM's economic advisor
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned Atul Gupta, Ajay Gupta, Rajesh Gupta and associate Salim Essa accusing them of membership to a significant corruption network in South Africa that leveraged overpayments on government contracts, bribery, and other corrupt acts to fund political contributions and influence government actions.
The quartet has been fingered specifically for their involvement in corruption in South Africa pursuant to Executive Order (EO) 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
Media reports today quote Mandelker saying “The Guptas and Essa have used their influence with prominent politicians and parties to line their pockets with ill-gotten gains.”
“The Gupta family leveraged its political connections to engage in widespread corruption and bribery, capture government contracts, and misappropriate state assets,” she added.
The Treasury Under Secretary continued: “Treasury’s designation targets the Guptas’ pay-to-play political patronage, which was orchestrated at the expense of the South African people. We will continue to exclude from the US financial system those who profit from corruption.”
Today’s sanctions announcement demonstrates the US government’s unwavering commitment to supporting the rule of law and accountability in South Africa, the US Treasury is quoted saying.
The department adds “We support the anti-corruption efforts of South Africa’s independent judiciary, law enforcement agencies, and the ongoing judicial commissions of inquiry. Moreover, we commend the extraordinary work by South Africa’s civil society activists, investigative journalists, and whistleblowers, who have exposed the breadth and depth of the Gupta family’s corruption.”
While the family has been implicated in several corrupt schemes in South Africa, allegedly stealing hundreds of millions of dollars through illegal deals with the South African government shrouded by a shadowy network of shell companies and associates linked to the family, their corrupt influence has stretched beyond the South African borders; a commission of inquiry to probe the extend and depth of the South African government capture by the family is ongoing.
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In Lesotho recently the Gupta name sprung up in the granting of a number of multi-million Maloti government tenders, fuelling allegations of underhand maneuvers that have been synonymous with the super-rich Indian business family.
It emerged earlier this year that a massive Gupta-linked tender was at the centre of corruption allegations thrown by senior health ministry officials, in relation to a deal with an Indian company for the supply of medical equipment.
Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s 2012 administration roped in members of the family to help advance the country's economic interests abroad.
Mr Thabane had issued diplomatic passports to Atul, his nephew Essa and a third unidentified member of the family after he appointed them as his economic advisors with a mandate to help him market Lesotho abroad and recruit investors.
Despite facing a myriad of corruption charges in neighbouring South Africa at that time, Mr Thabane told the country’s media outlets that “these people (the Guptas) are good friends of the African National Congress (ANC) and we have good relations with the ANC”.
Mr Thabane’s successor, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, decided to revoke the diplomatic passports issued to the Gupta family members upon assumption of office.
Metro last month established that another Indian-based company run by the Gupta family has won a tender to help Lesotho with its national irrigation master plan.
The company, WAPCOS Limited, is led by Rajinder Kumar Gupta as managing director and is touted as a specialist in harnessing and leveraging water and power for empowering people with innovative, cost-effective and eco-friendly solutions.
Lesotho obtained USD50 million (about M745 million) from the World Bank last year for its national irrigation plans. The total cost of the project is USD57 million (about M849.3 million).
The Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Malefetsane Nchaka, said the country was up in arms to support the production of food through irrigation schemes, hence the engagement of a foreign company to effect the plan.
Mr Nchaka said the company was going to guide them with which plans were appropriate for the Lesotho irrigation scheme based on the ecological zones of the country.
He said WASCOP had already submitted an inspection plan, and its team of representative would be in Lesotho on October 8.
Mr Nchaka maintained, however, that the company won the tender openly and fairly after its competitors failed to impress.
While any tinge of corruption in the awarding of the agricultural tender is denied, the Metro had also found out that the Gupta name resurfaced earlier in the awarding of another government tender with the Ministry of Health in September 2018 awarding another Gupta-linked Indian-based company, Verobien Healthcare, a M33.4 million tender to supply the government of Lesotho with medical equipment.
It has further been established that Verobien Healthcare is co-owned by Sanjeev Gupta, while unrelated to the prominent and controversial Gupta brothers Tony, Atul and Ajay, Sanjeev is closely linked to the Gupta family that his daughter Esheetaa worked for the Guptas’ Sahara Computers as IT analyst.
Sanjeev’s daughter is one of the Indians that fraudulently acquired a work permit in South Africa, according to the country's media reports.
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