Two Brothers Of Gupta Conglomerate Family Arrested In UAE, South Africa Talks About Extradition

Ajay Gupta (left) and Atul Gupta. (Source: Twitter/@Our_DA)

JAKARTA - The South African government has announced that two members of the Gupta conglomerate family have been arrested in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), namely Atul Gupta and Rajesh Gupta.

Atul and Rajesh are accused in South Africa of taking advantage of their close relationship with former president Jacob Zuma and using unfair influence. Extradition talks are ongoing with the UAE, South African officials say.

The Gupta brothers fled South Africa after a judicial commission began investigating their involvement in corruption in 2018. They are accused of paying financial bribes to win lucrative state contracts and influence the appointment of a powerful government.

The family moved from India to South Africa in 1993. They also face money laundering charges in India, where tax officials raided their property in 2018 in several cities, including their company office in the capital Delhi.

Many of the most serious corruption allegations leveled against the Indian-born brothers have focused on their relationship with Jacob Zuma, who was South Africa's president from 2009 until he was forced to step down amid a storm of corruption allegations nine years later.

The Guptas are accused of using their close relationship with Zuma, to wield enormous political power at all levels of the South African Government, win business contracts, influence the appointment of high-ranking government officials and misappropriate state funds.

Both Jacob Zuma and the Gupta brothers deny wrongdoing.

After the Gupta brothers left the country, South Africa negotiated an extradition treaty with the UAE in 2021.

President Cyril Ramaphosa's government said it hoped the deal would lead to the return of the Gupta brothers to face charges, but it was not immediately clear after the arrests whether the brothers would return to South Africa.

The Gupta family became so closely related to Jacob Zuma that, giving rise to the common term for them, Zupta. It is understood that one of Zuma's wives, as well as their son and daughter, have positions working in senior roles for companies controlled by Gupta.

Jacob Zuma. (Wikimedia Commons/World Economic Forum/Eric Miller)

Many of the companies in the Gupta portfolio have benefited from lucrative contracts with government departments and state-owned companies, in which public officials say they were directly instructed by the family to make decisions that would advance the brothers' business interests.

It is alleged that compliance is rewarded with money and promotions, while disobedience is punishable by dismissal.

The list of public bodies accused of being "entangled" is extensive, the ministries of finance, natural resources and public companies, as well as agencies responsible for tax collection and communications, state broadcaster SABC, national airlines, South African Airways, state-owned rail carriers and energy giant Eskom, one of the largest utility companies on the planet.

An investigation four years later published by the country's top judge concluded that the Gupta brothers' influence was firmly entrenched at the highest levels of government and the Zuma-led African National Congress (ANC) party.

The report, published this year by investigators, accused the brothers of links to extortion activities through procurement of rail, port and pipeline infrastructure. The authors also conclude that Zuma "will do whatever Gupta wants him to do for them".

Last year, Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison for refusing to testify before the same investigator. He was released on parole after serving two months of his sentence in prison.

Who are the Gupta brothers? Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta moved to South Africa from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in 1993, just after the collapse of apartheid.

It is said that when Atul arrived to found the family business Sahara Computers, he was surprised by the lack of bureaucracy. They grew the company to employ more than 10.000 people in South Africa, also developing financial interests in the mining, air travel, energy, technology and media sectors.

As for Atul Gupta, he said he met Zuma before he became president, "when he was a guest at one of the Sahara's annual events."