US Gupta sanction shows up inept SA

The Americans learnt that the way you bring gangsters to justice is through following the money.

That’s how they nailed notorious hoodlum Al Capone, who eventually went to prison for tax evasion – not murder, kidnapping or extortion.

The United States labels gangster-type conduct “racketeering” and has a whole arsenal of legislation which enables it to hit the crooks hard where it hurts most – in their bank accounts.

So it is with the announcement that the US Treasury’s Office of foreign assets control has sanctioned Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, along with their henchman, Salim Essa, as “members of a significant corruption network in South Africa”.

This empowers US law enforcement to seize any US dollar-denominated assets of the men who were at the centre of state capture … effectively drastically limiting their future options to evade justice, because so many global transactions involve the use of American currency at some stage.

Having that considerable international muscle backing SA in the quest to have these men answer for their pillaging of the country is a hugely positive development.

But, at the same time, it begs the question: what has the SA government done to bring the Guptas to book?

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