72 transactions 'don't warrant investigation' - Oakbay CEO

Cape Town – The so-called 72 suspicious transactions involving the Gupta brothers do not warrant further investigation, Oakbay Investments said in an affidavit on Friday. 

Oakbay has indicated as early as October last year that it intended to oppose Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s application filed in the Pretoria High Court in which he has asked the courts to legally protect him from having to intervene in the matter between the family and South Africa’s four banks. 

READ: Guptas to oppose application after Gordhan snub 

Oakbay CEO Ronica Ragavan, as the first respondent in the company’s answering affidavit, said it had made contact with a number of entities, such as the South African Revenue Services (Sars) and the Hawks to find out if there are any investigations pending against the company. 

“For the sake of completeness”, Ragavan said, “Oakbay established whether any investigations were pending or had been completed in relation to 72 transactions.” 

In October last year, Gordhan said in his court bid that the Gupta family is under investigation by the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) for 72 banking transactions involving almost R7bn.

READ: Guptas ask FIC for more info over suspicious R6.8bn 

But Ragavan refuted these claims, saying Oakbay received tax clearance certificates from Sars, as well as a letter from the Hawks, confirming that there are no complaints or reports from either the banks, the FIC or the South African Police Service (Saps) pending. 

In addition, Oakbay also received an independent certificate from a company, Nardello & Co, which conducted a sanction list check on the Gupta brothers. 

“It is clear from the aforementioned documents that the 72 transactions have not attracted further investigations from the relevant authorities despite the fact that they were made public knowledge by the Minister,” Ragavan said. 

“The only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn from this state of affairs is that the 72 transactions do not warrant further investigation by the relevant authorities because they view them as lawful.”