Standard Bank intervenes in Gordhan-Gupta fray

Ajay, left, and Atul Gupta pictured in this file image.

Ajay, left, and Atul Gupta pictured in this file image.

Published Dec 15, 2016

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Johannesburg – Standard Bank has this week filed an

explanatory affidavit in the legal dispute between several companies owned by

Oakbay and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

Gordhan revealed earlier this year 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 affidavit, deposed by the bank’s general council Ian

Sinton and filed in the North Gauteng High Court, is in response to being cited

as a respondent in Gordhan’s affidavit.

Sinton notes that, until June this year, several Gupta

companies had accounts with the bank.

He writes that, upon the bank’s closure of these

accounts, it became the victim of a “wholesale public campaign” in which advertisements

were placed in the media.

In addition, writes Sinton, the bank was also subjected

to pressure from the ANC, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the

South African Communist Party.

Read also:  Oakbay refutes Gordhan's application

Sinton alleges that Oakbay was behind this “unprecedented”

campaign.

In addition, Sinton says that threats of a judicial

enquiry into the bank’s closure of Gupta-owned company accounts should be

carried out as President Jacob Zuma has gone as far as to tell Parliament this

is under consideration.

Several banks and companies have cut ties this 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.

Standard Bank says there is no legal basis for ministers

to intervene in affairs between it and its customers.

As a result, it wants Gordhan’s request granted as well

as costs.

Gordhan wants the courts to declare that the executive or

any member of cabinet is not legally empowered to intervene in banking

relationships between banks and their clients.

Oakbay has said “the application’s detail is

fundamentally flawed”.

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