NPA asks Dubai to preserve ‘stolen’ Gupta millions – report

According to a report in City Press on Sunday, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has asked the United Arab Emirates to preserve R169 million allegedly stolen from a Free State dairy farm project and taken out of the country.

This comes in the wake of a preservation order for R250 million that was granted by the high court this week to the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU).

A senior prosecutor told the paper they were confident the Arab country would cooperate despite there not being a formal agreement in place.

“Both countries have cooperated before,” he reportedly said.

The money is understood to have been moved to Dubai through the Bank of Baroda, which is now leaving South Africa.

Last month, the High Court in Bloemfontein ruled in favour of Atul Gupta in a related matter to have R10 million in his personal bank account unfrozen.

The primary preservation order was also reduced, before being increased to R250 million this week.

Atul Gupta, the second eldest of the three Gupta brothers, had filed the high court application challenging the preservation of R10 million from his bank account by the AFU in connection with the Vrede project.

In February, the AFU obtained the order in relation to the controversial dairy project through which the Gupta family and their associates – through their company Estina – allegedly siphoned off more than R200 million meant to benefit emerging black farmers in Vrede.

Only R2 million is said to have been spent on the farm.

R10 million was allegedly deposited into Atul’s personal bank account by Estina before the project was even up and running. He denied this.

His lawyers argued that money other than the R10 million was also in his account and he could not be denied access to it.