BUSINESS NEWS - South African lender FirstRand said on Monday suspicions of money-laundering lay behind its decision to cut ties with a business family linked to allegations of influence-peddling in President Jacob Zuma’s government.
FirstRand, South Africa’s biggest bank by market value, is the first lender to publicly disclose reasons for severing links earlier this year with Oakbay Investments, a company controlled by the Gupta brothers.
The Gupta family, whose businesses range from media to mining, and Zuma have repeatedly denied wrongdoing. The Guptas’ lawyer said on Monday suspicions of money-laundering were groundless.
In an affidavit seen by Reuters, dated 29 November, FirstRand Chief Executive Johan Burger said his company had closed Oakbay bank accounts to comply with international regulations.
“These practices and standards require us to take steps to prevent FirstRand being used for money-laundering and other unlawful activities,” Burger says in the court papers.
The Gupta family lawyer, Gert van der Merwe, told Reuters it took the accusations of money-laundering seriously and that it would deal with them in its own court application, to be filed by the end of the year.
“We want the real reasons for closing the accounts, not sweeping statements,” Van der Merwe said.
“They've not disclosed any real reasons to show my clients are politically exposed people.”
Between December 2015 and April this year, all four major banks, also including Standard Bank, Nedbank and Barclays Africa, terminated the accounts of companies controlled by the Gupta family without making their reasons public.
