Money, especially oodles of it, opens closed doors.
The infamous three Gupta brothers, who had perpetrated a scandalous “State Capture” in South Africa under Jacob Zuma had fled the country to find refuge in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Guptas had robbed the country of billions with a systematic network of companies. Since their arrival in 1993, the Guptas built a huge business empire thanks to state funds, which they laundered offshore. Their influence went as far as ministerial appointments.
Last June, two brothers had been arrested in the UAE; but, despite strenuous efforts of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government for their extradition, this has failed. It has now become known that on the 13th of February, a secret UAE Court proceeding had denied extradition, but this information only reached South Africa six weeks later. That gave the Guptas time for another. Since 2019, they are no longer South Africans, but proud owners of Vanuatu passports. This, despite the Vanuatu Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) twice advising the country’s Vanuatu Citizenship Office in 2018 of “adverse information” against the brothers, according to the Daily Maverick (DM)!
In case, like me, you are not quite familiar with Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean, the DM described it as an archipelago of 83 tiny islands with a population of more than 300,000. The capital Port Vila is the largest town. It is obviously doing well. In December 2020, Vanuatu, a tax haven and home of other dodgy characters, was no longer classified as one of the least-developed countries, but had achieved developing country status.
South Africa’s Zondo Commission, which from 2018 had investigated fraud and capture of state funds by a small group of South Africans under Zuma, had come up with devastating facts, foremost concerning the Guptas.
“Al Jazeera” has now found what it described as a “missing link,” namely that one of the largest money launderers they named as Mohames Khan was behind the brothers’ activities. AJ’s investigative journalists have unearthed that, allegedly, he belongs to a gold mafia–a group of gangs engaged in gold smuggling and money laundering, operating in southern Africa.
Hopefully South Africa can get some of its money back. As for the Guptas, who are sought by Interpol, they may find travel a little tricky.