The National Prosecuting Authority has finally launched its fight against the Guptas – marked by the confirmation of a request to Interpol to help execute their arrests abroad.
Roughly five years since the #Guptaleaks first emerged, the names of Atul and Rajesh Gupta and their wives, Chetali and Arti, appear on a charge sheet.
The four Guptas are among a group of 17 accused listed in the indictment presented at the Bloemfontein Magistrates’ Court, where their longtime associate Iqbal Sharma and three former government officials appeared briefly on Thursday, 3 June 2021.
The production of a charge sheet is a significant development in South Africa’s efforts to bring the Guptas to book for alleged State Capture crimes, and comes as the Zondo Commission enters its final days of public hearings, which began in August 2018.
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AAA Iqbal Meer Sharma, once a powerful South African government official in the Department of Trade and Industry, was arrested on Thursday in a massive fraud and corruption scandal linked to the controversial Gupta family.
Mr. Sharma was charged alongside three senior former officials of the Free State government, who allegedly transgressed processes related to spending of public funds. The state alleges that Mr. Sharma, through his company Nuland Investment, laundered over 20 million Rands which the provincial Free State Department of Agriculture paid for a feasibility study which was supposed to cost just 1.5 million Rands.
This was to determine whether the Estina Dairy Farm project would benefit small-scale Black farmers in partnership with Indian company Paras.