The unravelling empire of the Guptas: Story of South Africa's wealthy businessmen

The Gupta family, who moved to South Africa from India in the early 1990s, is better known for its business empire across sectors, from media to mining, and their ties with the South African President Jacob Zuma. The family has also been accused of misusing the ties with the President to win government contracts for their companies.

Brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta moved to South Africa from Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Guptas-controlled Oakbay Group owns a number of companies. Atul began the first business, Sahara Computers, in 1993.

Recently, a Bloomberg report suggested that Bank of Baroda is now being probed by South African Reserve Bank (SARB) over holding money for firms owned by Guptas. Sources also informed that the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse alleged in court papers that mine-rehabilitation funds held for two of the Gupta family’s companies had been mismanaged and used to repay loans.

Bank of Baroda holds about USD 130 million (1.75 billion rand) on behalf of mine trusts and by doing so it may have breached its own rules of having significant exposure to certain clients, sources said.

In June, the bank’s Johannesburg-based unit was fined 11 million rand by SARB for not taking enough measures to fight financial crime and was issued a directive to improve its monitoring and reporting of unusual transactions, the most severe sanction aside from being shut down.

After the fine, the lender told Guptas that it would terminate their accounts by the end of September. In August, the family took legal action against the bank to stop them from shutting the family’s accounts. While the accounts are still open, the lender has told the family that the termination is non-negotiable.

While Zuma and the family have denied any wrongdoings, the bank is still seeking a court order that will let it close the accounts related to Guptas’ companies. Bank of Baroda has held the family’s accounts since 2005.

The family has already been denied opening of accounts by a series of lenders, including South Africa’s four biggest banks and Bank of China, fearing charges of foul play. Bank of Baroda is the last hope for the family.

Bank of India and State Bank of India started shutting the Gupta accounts in July after they found out that Bank of Baroda was planning to end their ties with the Guptas, Ronica Ragavan, who heads several companies with links to the family, said in court papers filed last month.

Guptas’ lavish lifestyle has been in the news — their suburban house spreads across 1,40,000-square-foot compound shielded by concrete walls and is sometimes guarded by an armored personnel carrier.

In 2013, the family became famous after Sun City wedding, invoices from which totaled to about 30 million rand. The wedding displayed the riches owned by the family, but later some leaked e-mails showed that the wedding was actually funded with taxpayers’ money.

Gupta brothers ran into a controversy when a chartered plane carrying guests for the wedding of sister's daughter landed at the Waterkloof Air Base near Pretoria.