Gordhan’s bank application an abuse of power to settle political scores: Guptas
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s “superfluous application is riddled with factual and legal errors” and “its reliance on the list of 72 purported ‘suspicious transaction reports’ is misplaced and… supported by a flawed analysis”.
That’s according to responding court papers filed at the High Court in Pretoria on Friday by the Gupta family.
The papers described Gordhan’s application as an “abuse of power” and an “effort to involve the independent judiciary to settle political scores”.
If the court “were to countenance” the application‚ “it would open the floodgates for other weak-kneed political officials who are too scared to take positions of sensitive political and policy matters”.
Gordhan could “simply have declined to do anything in the exercise of his legal discretion”‚ but had instead approached the courts to rule on the issue‚ the papers said.
The papers are in response to an explosive affidavit submitted by Gordhan in 2016‚ saying that he couldn’t intervene in the decisions by the banks to stop doing business with the family.
On October 14 last year‚ Gordhan filed court papers that contained details about “suspicious” bank transactions by Gupta-owned companies totalling almost R6.8-billion‚ which may have contributed to the banks closing accounts belonging to the Guptas.
The responding papers on Friday said that the Guptas had appointed an independent company to probe those transactions.
A statement issued by the Guptas’ Oakbay listed the highlights of the responding papers‚ including:
- “Oakbay has never suggested that the ninister 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;
- The minister has essentially 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;
- “Regarding the 72 ‘suspicious transaction reports’ allegedly reported to the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) and highlighted in the certificate provided to the minister by the FIC;
- “Oakbay has made every attempt and pursued every avenue open to it‚ to gain the information it needs to prove that each and every transaction is legitimate and above board;
- Nardello & Co‚ an international investigative firm‚ was engaged to review the 72 transactions. Nardello’s report concludes 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;
- “The FIC’s release of this information to the minister was unlawful in itself; and
- “The Court should therefore decline to grant the relief sought by the minister and dismiss the minister’s application with costs.”
Gupta lawyer Gert van der Merwe said earlier that the family intends proving what they claim is a smear campaign against them and their businesses. – Tiso Black Star Group Digital