City Press reports that Standard Bank has instituted disciplinary proceedings against an employee who had offered to reopen bank accounts for Gupta companies currently under business rescue.  

On Monday, the business rescue practitioners Louis Klopper and Kurt Knoop told creditors of smaller Gupta companies at a series of meetings that Standard Bank had agreed to open transactional accounts for all the companies.  However, on Tuesday, at far larger meetings for creditors of the Optimum Coal mine, the two had to backtrack.  “Standard Bank asked for more information,” said Knoop, who added that they were in negotiations with the bank.  Standard Bank had declined to confirm or deny anything on Monday, but on Tuesday said that the employee who had communicated with Knoop and Klopper “was acting out of mandate”.  Standard Bank said in a message that its decision to cut ties with the Gupta family in April 2016 “still stands and has not been reviewed”.

• Read this report by Dewald Van Rensburg in full at City Press

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